Přemysl Vojta, Ye Wu & Florence Millet - John Cage: Music For Three (2024)

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Přemysl Vojta, Ye Wu & Florence Millet - John Cage: Music For Three (2024)

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John Cage (1912-1992) holds his own special place amidst this stylistic pluralism. Although Cage did not specifically write a trio for horn, violin, and piano, his work Music For (1984) can be easily fleshed out in this instrumental lineup. Music For is a bundle of 17 parts that can be randomly associated with one another. Each possible combination represents an entirely valid version of the piece – ranging from a solo performance to piano duet, string quartet, or ensemble with voice. The version for horn trio is called Music For Three, and this version also allows for several performance alternatives.

YE WU: ……Cage was truly trying out a lot of different things. I find that horn, piano, and violin, with their differing timbres, offer the perfect lineup for this music……..We’re also dealing with a kind of freedom when such moments emerge quasi-spontaneously from our playing without having to plan them together beforehand. ”

Přemysl Vojta: ……John Cage’s Music For Three allows us such freedoms and possibilities. That is why this music emerges so fresh and turns out differently every time it is performed on stage or in the recording studio. For me, it’s been a thrilling experience, this way of dealing with time and the position we occupy within it – thanks to a score that always allows us to find that standpoint and interpret it anew.….

Florence Millet: IWe’re allowed to set in for the first time whenever we want within the first 35 seconds. That is already the first freedom this piece allows us. As soon as we hear one of our colleague’s notes, or the breath inhale that precedes it, we can react to what is going on. We feel a pulse – perhaps it’s the rhythm of the planets, or the pulse of our lives – as if life was just one long inhalation and exhalation. What comes before it? Another inhalation and exhalation. That is what we discover in this piece.

At many points, you have shorter rhythm or pulse values. For instance, I am pulling the bowhairs along the strings. That comes from a movement in my body. I need to pay close attention to the kind of sound this produces, including which harmonics, and whether Přemysl or Ye are playing while I am carrying this out. All of a sudden, I realize: this is the point where the next note should come. It is a recognition that emerges from a simultaneous interplay of body, movement, and instinct, almost like dancing a waltz….(Zitate aus dem Booklettext von Johannes Zink)