"Percussion music is like an arrow pointing to the whole unexplored field of sound" – John Cage.

In our Bodø BEAT Closing Concert: Break New Ground we will represent two of the most notable avant-garde composers of the 20th Century – John Cage and Steve Reich.
John Cage was the father of indeterminism, a Zen-inspired aesthetic which expelled all notions of choice from the creative process. Rejecting the most deeply held compositional principles of the past – logical consequence, vertical sensitivity, and tonality among them – Cage created a groundbreaking alternative to the serialist method, deconstructing traditions established hundreds and even thousands of years earlier; the end result was a radical new artistic approach which impacted all of the music composed in its wake, forever altering not only the ways in which sounds are created but also how they're absorbed by audiences. Cage believed that any sounds could be music, which led him to compose for found objects (such as magazines, a table, books, or the floor, or window frames), as well as standard instruments. When John Cage invented the prepared piano in 1940, he created a sound world and body of music unlike anything heard before. The innovative music he wrote for prepared piano requires a completely new approach to performance, and expands our understanding of the piano's capabilities.

Born in 1936 and influenced by John Cage, Steve Reich developed a distinctive and influential musical style during the 1960s and 1970s based on repeating interlocking patterns and slowly-unfolding processes that soon became known as "minimalism". Rhythm and pulse formed the cornerstone of Reich's early aesthetic, and musicians enlisted to perform his music were often experienced percussionists. In 1970, Reich studied for several weeks at the University of Ghana. His encounter with Ghanaian music and dance inspired his ambitious work Drumming.
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Programme:
J. Cage – Living Room Music for Percussion Quartet
J. Cage – Sonata XIV/XV "Gemini" (after the work by Richard Lippold) for prepared piano
J. Cage – Dance Music for Elfrid Ide, II movement (for 4 percussionists: slide whistle, cymbal, toy piano, ratchet, squawker, bass drum, low tom tom, 3 muted gongs); III movement (for pianist and 2 percussionists: claves, slapstick, rattle).
S. Reich – Drumming for 4 pairs of tuned bongo drums
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Artists:
Åsmund Moen, Sebastiaan Molenaar, Geir Strande Syrrist, Martin Lien, Yegor Shevtsov