1 post tagged “vexations”
Last weekend Elsewhere hosted Vexations, a communal musical experience in conjunction with South Elm's John Foy Piano restoration. Vexations was a recreation of John Cage's 1963 performance of Erik Satie's 1893 score; a piece of music one-page long that was played in 840 repetitions for nearly 24 hours. To complete the recreation Elsewhere allowed visitors to sign in and out of the performance and be refunded a nickel for every twenty-minutes that they listened.
The event officially began with a opening reception at 7 pm Friday night at John Foy piano, and the performance kicked-off at about 8:30 pm on the 608 side of Elsewhere. Performers played mostly on an antique 19th century Steinway grand piano, though accompaniment was provided on kazoo, cello, and toy piano at different points through the night.
The experience for those of us who stayed most or all of the night was just as the title suggests. The music is arduously slow and difficult to understand in any intellectual way. Despite the high volume of guests the mood in 608 was subdued, and sitting to listen for any significant length of time produced a feeling of concentration that was simultaneously overwhelming and difficult to grasp. The notes and chords lost meaning the same way that a word does when one repeats it many times. Just say 'piano' a couple hundred times and imagine everyone in the room feeling the same confounded perplexity as you.
For guests that needed a nap a bed was provided, they could sleep and their image was projected beside the piano in a recreation of Andy Warhol's film Sleep (another component of Cage's 1963 performance.)
At 8:20 Saturday night John Foy played the 840th repetition, sat for a moment of contemplation, then closed the piano lid and silently walked away. We all sat stunned for just a moment before the applause broke out. Surprisingly, many of the players and guests felt a loss after the music ended, though Vexations provides no melody you could hum on the way home.
I'd like to thank all the volunteers and performer's who pulled together to make a piece of music that no single person can possibly play into a reality. John Foy Piano can be found here.
