Cage- Etudes Australes Book I No. 1

First installment of John Cage's "Etudes Australes" for solo piano. This is an IMMENSELY difficult piece; much more-so than it sounds. Well... not this one in particular; the etudes become escalatingly more and more difficult throughout the four book cycle, each of which is comprised of eight etudes. The pieces are indeterminate in all factors other than pitch, and in some ways duration; there is no standard notation beyond the bar lines, as all notes are either represented in open or closed format, the open (the ones that look like whole notes) noted to be sustained for as long as possible. Tempi, rhythm, dynamics and pedal are all left up to the interpretation of the pianist. This piece is for prepared piano, but instead of tinkering with the inside, rubber wedges are placed between certain keys for each etude so-as to cause the keys depressed against them to self-sustain. What makes this piece so difficult is that it is actually two pieces put together; notice in the sheet music excerpt that two separate groups of bass and treble clef are used, as if it was written for four hands. This is because the piece is meant to be a "duet" between the two hands, meaning that each must play in all registers of the piano, and this often causes absurd crossovers. For now, I'm only going to be uploading Book I. I will upload entire books sporadically.

Etudes Australes by John Cage, performed by Steffen Schleiermacher.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Cage
• Prepared
• Piano
• Etudes
• Australes

[John11inch]

Yes. What a shame I am not a "genious" and my punctuation lacksacademicskillssodoesrunon­sentence, unlike yours. And, "bad tempered" would be incorrect; it would either be bad-tempered or badly tempered. Not to mention you actually have two, other run on sentences. Good job, "genious."

[randomclam898889]

I couldn't watch the video because I was too busy laughing at the comments the user posted.

[John11inch]

@kas0161

I see that you're a fan of both Mike Huckabee and 30 Seconds to Mars. I'm more than willing to take a Midol if you promise to take some strychnine, which you probably already should have.

[kas0161]

@John11inch There is clearly a mistake at 2:48. Any trained ear can tell that the suspended 7th quarter back flip note that is meant to be played there was butchered. On a side note, the uploader needs to take a midol and stfu. Cheers ;)

[John11inch]

@foxconnect

"Comment removed" = "Indeed. As am I." No. I'm afraid that it's quite obvious what your initial intention was: to give somebody here the impression that you know what you're talking about, when this is clearly not the case.

[John11inch]

@foxconnect

There is no mistake at 2:48. The person is a troll.

[Jshaw1ful]

@John11inch Slightly harsh there sir, tone it down a little bit :P brill upload though! Cage was truly one of the best =)

[MrTanookiMario]

Eh. Boring. I'm sure it's fun to play, but it's not much to listen to.

[meltcrash]

@cnmaster01

Nice angle. I would say I agree.

[cnmaster01]

@meltcrash but when we try to explain what music means, we're at a loss. The Flight of the Valkeries clearly doesn't mean the same thing in that classic Full Metal Jacket scene as it did to the premiere's audience awaiting the curtain to rise. The same could be said of Handel's Hallelujah Chorus, originally meant to depict the Apocalypse.

[cnmaster01]

@yleae xD that might explain it.

[rosabellis]

Most people don't get the point of these études...