Each one of those high notes goes through me like a bloody knife stabbing me down my back... if it isn't that problem i am having, i would consider this as a nice abstract Dada art...
Just makes you wonder what can really be achieved with such a versatile instrument. So many techniques and different sounds that can be obtained.
This may sound like crap to a lot of people. I like to think of it as new possibilities for the instrument. Maybe there are other techniques and methods that remain unexplored on this instrument.
@TheLeaver1234 Sarcasm, but still, if I had some time to sit around and pluck random shit on my violin I could come up with something "interesting" such as this. Haha, I'm sure it would be hard as hell to re-create this, so no doubt it is "one of the most difficult pieces ever written for a violin", but who would want to.
It's fairly ironic, Cage fans listen to John Cage, because they find repetitive traditional music, at least in many cases, boring, but minimalists talk about him as if he were the messiah! Almost makes you wonder if Voltaire's was right about God being the world's best comedian
too many of you classical music loving people are just so elitist...I listen to classcal music except weird shit by John Cage...anyways, nothing wrong with Pop Music...it's simplified but still music. God, just relax man...know that there is more to life than worshiping music.
I wish I could go somewhere and not read that fucking kids name. Justin Bieber is a brand. Also John Cage is a giant troll, most of his "music" isnt music. He even tried not to make it music. And still the equivilant of the hipster community in the 1940s and 50s were so happy to lift him on their shoulders. A joke. Here is john cage in a nut shell.
MY name is John Cage and I want to be special. Name special Cage John Want I is and be to my. And Cage name my special John is be want I to.
@Rasts Try listening to his nocturne "Dream" or "In a landscape" they are beautiful, he was a great composer. He did use chance operations starting in the 50's, most of which is based off the I Ching, Its interesting stuff, think of them as studies, you cannot deny him the respect he deserves nor his place in music history.
It was alright for the first 20 seconds or so, then it got old. But better than I expected considering this was composed using chance.
But for those fans who feel threatened whenever someone says this sounds bad, you have to understand that the composer himself didn't even intend for this to sound good. Cage is exploring the idea of overcoming "impossibility." He's not even trying to make it sound good, so obviously only a tiny fraction of people would find this enjoyable.
this particular etude helps you become familiar with playing random notes, and preparing you to get use to what your future beginning student will sound like on the first day.
This is just amazing ! Number 18 is my fab. of this etudes. I have the score indeed.
You say this is weird, I say this is beautiful. So I guess that makes weird is beautiful. Anyways, as Saint-Exupéry said in The little Prince : what's essential is invisible to the eye
@MoonMankkkkkk Of course, I love it ! It is of course pleasant to me, but I also think this music is farbeyond the idea of pleasure. Why do you wonder about it ? Why would you want me to like what you like ? Why is it so strange that someone can love this music ? Why can it be stranger than someone who loves to listen to Marilyn Manson or Madonna ? Is it a matter of taste ? of sensibility ? who cares ? all I know is that this music is tellin me something very very important, what is it ?
@RingOfRae There isn't a thing remotely harmonious in this music. I actually would not consider this art, much less music. This is purely a technical study. It has no end outside the display of virtuosity. Any supposed artistic themes are post hoc and rationalized.
Is this music about harmony ? So why do you want it to be harmonious ? Do your own music and do it the way you like it, but dont try to convince me if you dont have a clue of wht is goin on with this in particular and with Cage's music in general, I'm not sure you are aware of his work.
@MoonMankkkkkk even if the artistic value is all provided by the listener, that does not diminish it. Bach's considered his Toccata and Fugue in D Minor just a demo piece for testing out organs, while I'd consider it a beautiful piece of music, and I'm not wrong, and neither is Bach. But really, it is art and it is definitely music, even if you don't like it.
Generally, I do or I refrain from citing the information.
Try not to make personal attacks.
Unlike Cage, there are actually objective attributes found in the Toccata and Fugue in D minor itself that would be condusive to enjoyment. There's none of that in this piece. It's just a cacophonous mismash of notes without any perceptible order.
@MoonMankkkkkk Maybe its not enjoyable to you, but there are people who do find this enjoyable, and they aren't wrong just because its not your kind of music. Also, you don't need to listen to Cage. We're not forcing you to. Its up here for people who like listening to it, so why don't you just go listen to other composers you do enjoy, I'm sure you'd be happier.
@MoonMankkkkkk So, what your saying is, the fact that people enjoy this and not that means that there are no conducive elements to enjoying music? True, obviously.
"These are intentionally as difficult as I can make them, because I think we're now surrounded by very serious problems in the society, and we tend to think that the situation is hopeless and that it's just impossible to do something that will make everything turn out properly. So I think that this music, which is almost impossible, gives an instance of the practicality of the impossible." -John Cage
To me it sounds like a study in ulta-modern jazz technique more than a musical statement : but what else can you expect from Cage? What has always puzzled me is that he thought John Coltrane's A Love Supreme was boring.
This will not make you a good violinist. An insane one maybe. None of it's random, he used star charts, but my ear is sure telling me it's complete chaos.
I am pretty sure the recording is playing backwards. :) Seriously, I always get a kick out of Cage, you never know what the heck is going to happen next with him.
As much was people dismiss Cage's music for being random it most certainly isn't. Although his methods for choosing notes etc. are, the planing of how the notes are to be chosen was fastidious.
Seriously, this is one of the most phenonmenal cases i've ever seen. It this really playable on violin?? Most probably yes. Is this really so called...music?? hmm...i wouldn't dare to say because all i heard was notes 'flying' around.
This sounds like the soundtrack to a drop of water going through a plumbing system.
Interesting concept, but I really don't enjoy John Cage's music, he seems more like a modern artist than an actual composer. Interesting concepts, but usually unlistenable music. He has done some cool stuff here and there, though.
Either way it was interesting to actually hear what this sounded like after seeing it on paper. Weird.
so is this what modern composer can do? I'm sure they can do better than this to create complexity. Sigh...I thought I would of found someone who can compose like liszt. :(
I mean my opinion is that this is random plotting of notes rather than contemplate the melody.
I heard of sorabji and finissy before, I like Sorabji's music, but Finissy...yes he might have the hardest piece ever written but still music needs to have melody and rythem, which I don't think these composers have when come to difficulty. Maybe different era now, so I shouldn't compare with composer in romantic era...but people like rachmanioff; liszt and chopin they composed really hard stuff but yet beautiful, why can't they do it now? Well.. dearly beloved concert paraphase is anyway. :D
I think it's funny when people ask "Why can't modern composers compose like *name of famous romantic/classical composer*?" The answer is twofold: if everyone could compose like that, then those composers wouldn't be special and unique. AND, because those composers composed during their time, with their training and their experiences. Many were considered as strange and rebellious as the "modern"-style composers. By the way, most who wrote this style (including cage) are dead- modern! ha! :)
, or really just random notes created by maybe a dice. (learn that method in A level music), you don't need to create a music that has no common notes to be unique, if you listen to Joe Hisaishi's music, his music sound unique to him but he compose in a romantic style.
I listened to Hasaishi- he composes is contemporary light jazz style (not really very classical), and it is certainly not as unique as this style of music. Cage and his followers opened up many new doors for composers that allowed new styles to emerge- that is their significance. Listen to horror soundtracks and you hear a lot of these sounds!
Lol but can I just say these are merely random jumps, if you want I can try and record myself improvising one of these probably no need planning, I tried it once it worked. hehe talking about horrors I think I like Xénakis Metastaseis more. :) that is truely horror. =D
O I certainly think some of this kind of music is better than others. One of my favorites is Penderecki's Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima...but you cannot deny that the idea of "random" notes is original and important to music history!
@MoonMankkkkkk And good composing will stay gone until somebody decides to pull themselves up from their bootstraps, figure out how to do it right again, and then decide to compose some decent music.
And no shitty Avatar Horner music either, some real music.
Hmm... I'm sure someone must find this music good, the same way I'm sure someone must find Rosie O'Donnell hot.... unfortunately I'm definitely not that someone......
@sharonch217 this isn't comparable so much to finding rosie o'donnell hot as to find a random wood shaving you find on the sidewalk on a rainy day hot.
this is strangely... schizophrenic. don't mistake me, this is beautiful.
grrrr17 1 week ago
I think he is fucking the violin ..
Tolband 2 months ago 2
This = awesome!
CLASSICAListheWAY 4 months ago
how do you read the score -_-
Wishrachi 6 months ago
To me this sounds lovely --- like the chirping of many birds the songs of which pass so quickly you cannot account for them all.
nobodady1 6 months ago
this is... strange... and mad
x3Barca 7 months ago
horrible music! crazy music!
megacharly1976 7 months ago
Only beginners will play in such horrible timbre. For advancers and masters, this is totally unacceptable!!
GoToHell987987 8 months ago
@GoToHell987987 Beginners mind, best mind.
nobodady1 5 months ago
Honestly, I immediately turned it off when I heard the first second.
GoToHell987987 8 months ago
This etude is aimed to practice how to make noise?
GoToHell987987 8 months ago
Each one of those high notes goes through me like a bloody knife stabbing me down my back... if it isn't that problem i am having, i would consider this as a nice abstract Dada art...
Leungy12252 8 months ago
Just makes you wonder what can really be achieved with such a versatile instrument. So many techniques and different sounds that can be obtained.
This may sound like crap to a lot of people. I like to think of it as new possibilities for the instrument. Maybe there are other techniques and methods that remain unexplored on this instrument.
juanfravg 9 months ago 2
@TheLeaver1234 Sarcasm, but still, if I had some time to sit around and pluck random shit on my violin I could come up with something "interesting" such as this. Haha, I'm sure it would be hard as hell to re-create this, so no doubt it is "one of the most difficult pieces ever written for a violin", but who would want to.
bo5710 9 months ago
The freeman etude should be caged.
Good fiddler, though..........although I wouldn't want to meet her in a dark alleyway.
BestAmateurViolinist 9 months ago
I think the whole point is to laugh!
fukitol1000mg 9 months ago
Jesus christ... I've never played a violin in my life but I think I could do this
bo5710 9 months ago 2
@bo5710 Boy, you are really smart. You do know that this is one of the most difficult pieces ever written for a violin, right?
TheLeaver1234 9 months ago
@bo5710 if you would feel honest doing it, then by all means, please do !
joznick1 3 months ago
Omfg I laughed the whole 3 minutes
bo5710 9 months ago
It's fairly ironic, Cage fans listen to John Cage, because they find repetitive traditional music, at least in many cases, boring, but minimalists talk about him as if he were the messiah! Almost makes you wonder if Voltaire's was right about God being the world's best comedian
cnmaster01 10 months ago
any1 who takes such piece seriously is simply wasting their life.
bountyhanz 10 months ago
@bountyhanz Kill yourself.
TheLeaver1234 9 months ago
where is the music?
Herberthintermwald 10 months ago
A masterpiece. Belongs to the best music ever written for solo violin!
GrgaGrga007 10 months ago 2
this is pretty diffcult for player, so thumbs up, but i don't like it ! :)
MyPhenomena 11 months ago
too many of you classical music loving people are just so elitist...I listen to classcal music except weird shit by John Cage...anyways, nothing wrong with Pop Music...it's simplified but still music. God, just relax man...know that there is more to life than worshiping music.
dalecampbl7 11 months ago
I wish I could go somewhere and not read that fucking kids name. Justin Bieber is a brand. Also John Cage is a giant troll, most of his "music" isnt music. He even tried not to make it music. And still the equivilant of the hipster community in the 1940s and 50s were so happy to lift him on their shoulders. A joke. Here is john cage in a nut shell.
MY name is John Cage and I want to be special. Name special Cage John Want I is and be to my. And Cage name my special John is be want I to.
Rasts 1 year ago
@Rasts What a bad joke...
Carloprieto 10 months ago
@Rasts Try listening to his nocturne "Dream" or "In a landscape" they are beautiful, he was a great composer. He did use chance operations starting in the 50's, most of which is based off the I Ching, Its interesting stuff, think of them as studies, you cannot deny him the respect he deserves nor his place in music history.
chillandthrill87 10 months ago
@Rasts I'd say your assessment of Cage as a troll is pretty accurate, and clearly you've learned a lot from him
cnmaster01 10 months ago
Fuck Justin Beeber and Lady Gaga, this shit should be all over the charts
mkeysou812 1 year ago 2
how we do we know that he isn't faking this?
princhornrhs 1 year ago
@princhornrhs There exists sheet music for this piece.
BPinard 10 months ago
che cacata spaventosa!!!
dop216 1 year ago
this stuff sucks and will be picking up dust soon in some music library buried deep inside a lot of other crappy musical manuscripts.
dalecampbl7 1 year ago
@dalecampbl7 Go listen to some britney spears jerkoff, you have no concept of the unknown or art.
AdySkank 11 months ago 3
It was alright for the first 20 seconds or so, then it got old. But better than I expected considering this was composed using chance.
But for those fans who feel threatened whenever someone says this sounds bad, you have to understand that the composer himself didn't even intend for this to sound good. Cage is exploring the idea of overcoming "impossibility." He's not even trying to make it sound good, so obviously only a tiny fraction of people would find this enjoyable.
SkrPchr3 1 year ago 3
Roflmao!
Laudan08 1 year ago
this particular etude helps you become familiar with playing random notes, and preparing you to get use to what your future beginning student will sound like on the first day.
vlncrzy 1 year ago 3
Play this shit in the clubs!
JChreezy1125 1 year ago 28
thanks
Misantropo04 1 year ago
Is this a recording of somebody flossing there teeth?
Gargantupimp 1 year ago
@Gargantupimp I WISH my teeth sounded like this, I'd floss all day!
saladshootavvv 1 year ago 2
simply wonderful
ArboricumSandorsi 1 year ago
This is just amazing ! Number 18 is my fab. of this etudes. I have the score indeed.
You say this is weird, I say this is beautiful. So I guess that makes weird is beautiful. Anyways, as Saint-Exupéry said in The little Prince : what's essential is invisible to the eye
RingOfRae 1 year ago
@RingOfRae You actually find this music pleasing?
MoonMankkkkkk 1 year ago
@MoonMankkkkkk Of course, I love it ! It is of course pleasant to me, but I also think this music is farbeyond the idea of pleasure. Why do you wonder about it ? Why would you want me to like what you like ? Why is it so strange that someone can love this music ? Why can it be stranger than someone who loves to listen to Marilyn Manson or Madonna ? Is it a matter of taste ? of sensibility ? who cares ? all I know is that this music is tellin me something very very important, what is it ?
RingOfRae 1 year ago
@RingOfRae There isn't a thing remotely harmonious in this music. I actually would not consider this art, much less music. This is purely a technical study. It has no end outside the display of virtuosity. Any supposed artistic themes are post hoc and rationalized.
MoonMankkkkkk 1 year ago
Is this music about harmony ? So why do you want it to be harmonious ? Do your own music and do it the way you like it, but dont try to convince me if you dont have a clue of wht is goin on with this in particular and with Cage's music in general, I'm not sure you are aware of his work.
RingOfRae 1 year ago
@MoonMankkkkkk even if the artistic value is all provided by the listener, that does not diminish it. Bach's considered his Toccata and Fugue in D Minor just a demo piece for testing out organs, while I'd consider it a beautiful piece of music, and I'm not wrong, and neither is Bach. But really, it is art and it is definitely music, even if you don't like it.
DarkZekeX 1 year ago
@DarkZekeX
"Bach's considered his Toccata and Fugue in D Minor just a demo piece for testing out organs"
Source?
MoonMankkkkkk 1 year ago
@MoonMankkkkkk psh, I can't remember. Like you'd remember every source you'd base your ideas on.
Thank you though, for completely ignoring my argument, just cause you can't counter it.
DarkZekeX 1 year ago
@MoonMankkkkkk psh, I can't remember. Like you'd remember every source you'd base your ideas on.
Thank you though, for completely ignoring my argument, just cause you can't counter it.
DarkZekeX 1 year ago
@DarkZekeX
Generally, I do or I refrain from citing the information.
Try not to make personal attacks.
Unlike Cage, there are actually objective attributes found in the Toccata and Fugue in D minor itself that would be condusive to enjoyment. There's none of that in this piece. It's just a cacophonous mismash of notes without any perceptible order.
MoonMankkkkkk 1 year ago
@MoonMankkkkkk Maybe its not enjoyable to you, but there are people who do find this enjoyable, and they aren't wrong just because its not your kind of music. Also, you don't need to listen to Cage. We're not forcing you to. Its up here for people who like listening to it, so why don't you just go listen to other composers you do enjoy, I'm sure you'd be happier.
DarkZekeX 1 year ago 5
@MoonMankkkkkk So, what your saying is, the fact that people enjoy this and not that means that there are no conducive elements to enjoying music? True, obviously.
n0thank7 1 year ago
"These are intentionally as difficult as I can make them, because I think we're now surrounded by very serious problems in the society, and we tend to think that the situation is hopeless and that it's just impossible to do something that will make everything turn out properly. So I think that this music, which is almost impossible, gives an instance of the practicality of the impossible." -John Cage
markhphilpot 1 year ago
Sounds like Gantz Graf by Autechre...
...but played on the violin.
Anon1696 1 year ago
To me it sounds like a study in ulta-modern jazz technique more than a musical statement : but what else can you expect from Cage? What has always puzzled me is that he thought John Coltrane's A Love Supreme was boring.
padleynj 1 year ago
Please someone tell me why this isn't supposed to be music.
sc4v3ng3rSST 1 year ago
I'm all for modern music, but this is quite weird. I wonder what Cage was thinking at the time he wrote this :|
BBRENTTAGHAPP 1 year ago
Haha, with this piece i can annoy my parents xD
i love it^^
StanEvalio 1 year ago
This will not make you a good violinist. An insane one maybe. None of it's random, he used star charts, but my ear is sure telling me it's complete chaos.
Feignabsolution 1 year ago
A very difficult violin piece, but an ideal piece to become a good violonist.
LeMarxNouveau 2 years ago
I am pretty sure the recording is playing backwards. :) Seriously, I always get a kick out of Cage, you never know what the heck is going to happen next with him.
ksherwoodf 2 years ago
As much was people dismiss Cage's music for being random it most certainly isn't. Although his methods for choosing notes etc. are, the planing of how the notes are to be chosen was fastidious.
itsdrcheese 2 years ago
Yo solo me imagino a los profesores de violin viendo a sus alumnos tocar esto!!! xD
anferlo 2 years ago
Seriously, this is one of the most phenonmenal cases i've ever seen. It this really playable on violin?? Most probably yes. Is this really so called...music?? hmm...i wouldn't dare to say because all i heard was notes 'flying' around.
Interesting.
bountyhanz 2 years ago
I wouldn't want to be the poor guy to try to learn and interpret this.
Zebeldarebel 2 years ago
I woulnd't want to be the poor violin this is being played with
anferlo 2 years ago
Badass.
TheWatkinsvillian 2 years ago
This sounds like the soundtrack to a drop of water going through a plumbing system.
Interesting concept, but I really don't enjoy John Cage's music, he seems more like a modern artist than an actual composer. Interesting concepts, but usually unlistenable music. He has done some cool stuff here and there, though.
Either way it was interesting to actually hear what this sounded like after seeing it on paper. Weird.
jjmsmusic 2 years ago 2
How is it "unlistenable" if you just listened to it?
tinypapercube 2 years ago
I never said it was this piece in particular, but besides that, you know what I meant.
jjmsmusic 2 years ago
so is this what modern composer can do? I'm sure they can do better than this to create complexity. Sigh...I thought I would of found someone who can compose like liszt. :(
I mean my opinion is that this is random plotting of notes rather than contemplate the melody.
nelsyeung 2 years ago
They have done more than this as far as complexity
check out sorabji, finnissy, & ferneyhough if you want complexity with more of a romantic flare.
bullitosaladino 2 years ago
I heard of sorabji and finissy before, I like Sorabji's music, but Finissy...yes he might have the hardest piece ever written but still music needs to have melody and rythem, which I don't think these composers have when come to difficulty. Maybe different era now, so I shouldn't compare with composer in romantic era...but people like rachmanioff; liszt and chopin they composed really hard stuff but yet beautiful, why can't they do it now? Well.. dearly beloved concert paraphase is anyway. :D
nelsyeung 2 years ago
Well maybe you would like some of my music:
you can check it on myspace:
/adamvincentclay
I couldn't put the whole website address because youtube doesn't allow you to post links!
bullitosaladino 2 years ago
I think it's funny when people ask "Why can't modern composers compose like *name of famous romantic/classical composer*?" The answer is twofold: if everyone could compose like that, then those composers wouldn't be special and unique. AND, because those composers composed during their time, with their training and their experiences. Many were considered as strange and rebellious as the "modern"-style composers. By the way, most who wrote this style (including cage) are dead- modern! ha! :)
MrNoelJMIS 2 years ago
, or really just random notes created by maybe a dice. (learn that method in A level music), you don't need to create a music that has no common notes to be unique, if you listen to Joe Hisaishi's music, his music sound unique to him but he compose in a romantic style.
nelsyeung 2 years ago
I listened to Hasaishi- he composes is contemporary light jazz style (not really very classical), and it is certainly not as unique as this style of music. Cage and his followers opened up many new doors for composers that allowed new styles to emerge- that is their significance. Listen to horror soundtracks and you hear a lot of these sounds!
MrNoelJMIS 2 years ago
Lol but can I just say these are merely random jumps, if you want I can try and record myself improvising one of these probably no need planning, I tried it once it worked. hehe talking about horrors I think I like Xénakis Metastaseis more. :) that is truely horror. =D
nelsyeung 2 years ago
O I certainly think some of this kind of music is better than others. One of my favorites is Penderecki's Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima...but you cannot deny that the idea of "random" notes is original and important to music history!
MrNoelJMIS 2 years ago
You're right. Even as far back as Stravinsky and early modernism, horror films pop into my mind!
NEDM1991 1 year ago
@nelsyeung
That quality and genius in composing left the world forever with Rachmaninoff.
MoonMankkkkkk 1 year ago
@MoonMankkkkkk And good composing will stay gone until somebody decides to pull themselves up from their bootstraps, figure out how to do it right again, and then decide to compose some decent music.
And no shitty Avatar Horner music either, some real music.
Gargantupimp 1 year ago
Hmm... I'm sure someone must find this music good, the same way I'm sure someone must find Rosie O'Donnell hot.... unfortunately I'm definitely not that someone......
sharonch217 2 years ago 7
It's not supposed to be good, it's supposed to be impossible to play
cdavistwo 2 years ago
omg so you can ask every streetworker to compose a piece if this is the sence -.-
karazh 2 years ago
hahahaha I like that analogy
Wex1117 2 years ago
@sharonch217 this isn't comparable so much to finding rosie o'donnell hot as to find a random wood shaving you find on the sidewalk on a rainy day hot.
rightleftwinger 1 year ago
sounds awsome xD
chickerlick 2 years ago
Thanks a lot for sharing : I prefer this Cage's period that his zen's one !
RaphaelLanguillat 2 years ago
The negative votes are for expressing their opinions coarsely.
I wish we could see more than the first page...
NeoAdamite 2 years ago
Why are people getting voted down for sharing their opinions?
This IS weird. But interesting enough to listen to.
chappytk 2 years ago 15
Thanks for posting. I've been wanting to hear one of the Etudes for awhile. :)
NGS712 3 years ago
wtf!?!
paradox5653 3 years ago
A great composition and a wonderful performance by Irvine Arditti! thanks!
NewMusicXX 3 years ago
Well, it's not really meant to sound good. It's just a practice piece meant to be as hard as possible.
Olofpalmeistaden 3 years ago
who is playning? if is really human
karoloandria 3 years ago
Thanks for the upload.
John11inch 3 years ago
John Cage's entertaining piece.
I like it alot.
johnnynoirman 3 years ago
Sounds like a violin being rubbed on a horse.
impossimadnescyAJ 3 years ago
or someone strangling a mouse lol
Marcomedina 3 years ago
violin bows are generally made from horse hair.
authorless 2 years ago 4