Page 41 - Demo

BAM Opens With A Dance/Theater WorkContinued from Page IIwithout an m; and so forth unit he had spelled the whole name. Repeating this process, he created a 130-page text, later shortened to 40 pages.The head of West German national radio then asked the composer to read the work over the radio, but Cage decided to present a more elaborate version including music (composed by his usual method of ordered chance) and taped background noises form various places mentioned in %u201cFinnegans Wake.%u201d He spent a month in Ireland in 1979 with his sound engineer, John Fulleman, collecting sounds; sounds from places in other countries were culled from recordings in university libraries and museums.Another month was spent at the IRCAM Studios in Paris preparing a complete version for West German radio, which was broadcast later that year. Cunningham added a choreography for the 1983 Avignon Festival performance. The version now playing in the Brooklyn Academy%u2019s Opera House is substantially the same as the Avignon version %u2014 insofar as any work that changes with every performance can be said to remain the same.MUSIC THAT STRETCHES THE EARSCage%u2019s music is not accessible through the techniques used to appreciate traditional music. Two crucial elements of his work are radically at odds with most generally-accepted aesthetic ideas: his insistence that all kinds of sounds are potentially music; and his use of chance combinations of sounds, which opposes the notion that art is the result of an artist%u2019s intention and is therefore expressive.Cage%u2019s attitude towards %u201cFinnegans Wake%u201d is revelatory of his own approach: he loves it, he said, because %u201cI like books that I don%u2019t understand. If you understand something, it%u2019s gone dry, so to speak %u2014 it falls away like dust. But if you don%u2019t understand something, it remains with you all the time.%u201dCage%u2019s professed goal is to create music that can%u2019t be understood %u2014 %u201cmusic that stretches our ears,%u201d in the phrase of his predecessor Charles Ives. It is music thatexasperates critics and infuriates listeners who want either to be entertained or to make a judgement about a work%u2019s value.But Cage claims to be more than a dabbler in mechanical arcana %u2014 he says the incomprehensible has as much or more emotional impact than the well-tuned harmonies of traditional music.%u201cIt%u2019s very simple,%u201d he said. %u201cDo you understand your dreams? The answer, of course, is no %u2014 and my music is no more complicated than that. And wouldn%u2019t you say that your dreams touch you more than anything you can understand?%u201dNeedless to say, any idea of %u201cjudging%u201d the work or the performance makes little sense, given these presuppositions %u2014 since all work that is genuinely incomprehensible can only be of equal value.ANYTHING MAY HAPPEN %u201cValue judgements,%u201d Cage wrote 25 years ago in reference to another piece, %u201care not in the nature of the work as regards eithercomposition, performance or listening. The idea of relation being absent, anything may happen. A %u2018mistake%u2019 is beside the point, for once anything happens it authentically exists.%u201dStatements like these open Cage to the charge of abandoning not only aesthetics but also the possibility of communication (if truth lies only in the non-understandable, then for one person to %u201ctruly understand%u201d another makes no sense).But Cage insists that works like his enhance communication by moving it beyond a realm where it is governed by habit and into a realm where everyone is free to hold their own ideas.ENJOYING THE APPETITE FOR SOUNDAs for aesthetics, Cage still thinks enjoyment is a fundamental part of experiencing art. %u201cSound, when we don%u2019t enjoy it, is irritating,%u201d he said. %u201cWhen dance is not enjoyed it%u2019s disgusting. When architecture isn%u2019t any good it%u2019s like being in prison.%u201dBut he strictly distinguishes enjoyment from entertainment %u2014 true enjoyment only comes when %u201cart gets, so to speak, useful,%u201d Cage said. %u201cIf art is entertaining it%u2019s only entertaining for the moment. But if it%u2019s useful it changes you life.%u201dEnjoyment, further, is a sensual rather than an intellectual experience. And so Cage describes the ideal hearer of his work as %u201csomeone who has an appetite for sound and who can use that appetite whether he%u2019s in a concert hall or outside on the street. He can take in the sounds that he hears, and does this with such pleasure that any hierarchy of sounds drops away.%u201d%u201cnoaraiorio, an Irish Circus on Finnegans Wake,%u201d runs through Oct. 12 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music Opera House. Thursday tickets are $22, $18, $14 and HD. Friday-Sunday tickets are $25, $20, HD and $12. Performances are 8pm, Thursday-Saturday, 2pm, Sunday. For more information, call 636-4100.H K I M I U I K I N265 COURT STREET. BROOKLYN 596-9113Kirk Douglas & Burt Lancaster%u201cTough Guys%u201dRatad PGFri 6, 8, 10 Sat, Sun 2:30, 4:15, 6,8:10 Mon 1, 3:05, 5:10, 7:15, 9:15Tues Thurs 6, 7:50, 9:40%u201cTransformers\Sal & Sun %u2022 1pm%u201cStand By Me%u201dFri 5:15, 7, 8:40, 10:20 Sat, Sun2:45, 4:30, 7, 8:40, 10:20 Mon2:45, 4:30, 6:15, 8, 9:40 TuesThurs 6, 7:45, 9:30%u201c Flight ol the Navigator%u201dSat, Sun, Mon %u2022 1pmi W e have D olby S tereo iK L Y N H E I G H T S C in e m a * _ . Trl S96 7070.Starts Fri.%u201cA Classic%u201d- Siskal S Ebert AtThe Movies%u2018Peggy Sue GotMarried%u201dS ta rrin g K ath leenT u rn erRated PG2, 3:55, 5:50, 7:50, 9:50Held OverW illia m H urt &M a rle e M atlin%u201cChildren of aLesser God%u201dRated R2:30, 5, 7:25, 9:35%u201cShe%u2019s GottaHave It%u201dFri.: 6:10, 7:45, 9:20,10:55Sat.: 1:25, 3, 4:35, 6:10, 7:45,9:20, 10:55 Sun. t Mon.:1:25, 3, 4:35, 6:10, 7:45, 9:20Tues.-rhurs.: 6:30, 8:05, 9:35%u201cThat%u2019s Life%u201dStarring Julie Andrews,Jack LemonFri.: 5:20, 7:10, 9:05, 10:55Sat.: 1:40, 3:35, 5:20, 7:10,9:05, 10:55 Sun. 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