Living Room Music

Living Room Music I

Living Room Music II

Living Room Music III

Living Room Music IV
(all selections from John Cage: Music for Percussion)

I don’t listen to John Cage as much as I used to; in part because I don’t have as strong of an urge as I once did to listen to outlandish or difficult music in an attempt to “prove” that I have diverse taste, and in part because I’ve come to realize that incredibly inventive and challenging music can still be presented to me in a palatable pop format, complete with catchy hooks and choruses to keep my short attention focused.

Yet the other day I was listening to my iPod on shuffle mode when “Living Room Music I” came on, and I had to do a double-take. The shifting patterns of crisp, polyrhythmic beats — was this the start of a new Panda Bear remix I had downloaded off Gorilla vs. Bear without realizing it? No, there was no predictable build-up of fuzz and effects; everything stayed refreshingly sparse and concise.

I suppose if there’s any proper way to be reintroduced to John Cage, complete chance would be the way to do it. After listening to “Living Room Music I” thanks to the random assortment of iPod shuffle, I went back to revisit the entire 8-minute movement. The point of the piece, in short, is that all sounds in time constitute music, sounds are all around us in nature, and even interior spaces as mundane as a living room count as a natural environment. “Living Room Music” is a percussive piece created for four musicians who are instructed to use (from the score): “Any household objects or architectural elements… [including] magazines, newpaper… table… furniture…. largish books… floor, wall, door.” This was put together in 1940, decades before Tom Waits started banging on kitchen cabinets to create the percussion for Mule Variations and charging $100-plus for paperless tickets to see him at the Fox. (Although, listening to “Living Room Music III” I don’t know how an organ constitutes an ordinary “household object.” Hmmm. Sounds like cheating to me.)

Think about it — 1940! That was back when Jimmy Dorsey and the Glenn Miller Orchestra were all the rage. This sounds starkly original in contrast, it could almost pass as a release from the noughts. (The exception being “Living Room Music II” with its vocal exercises built around Gertrude Stein’s “The World is Round” — the performance screams 1970s public access and black turtlenecks.) The music is clean and economical, perfect acoustical feng shui for my new living room and continuing posts on homeownership.