John Cage, "Fontana Mix & Aria"

Notes From TIME Records 58003:

FONTANA MIX and ARIA by John Cage are two separate pieces, although capable of being performed simultaneously as has been done and recorded here. FONTANA MIX (1958) consists of several tapes which can be played simultaneously over different loudspeakers and, regarding its composition, it consists of several transparencies which may be placed upon each other in any way and can be read as indications for the production of such tapes. The production of the tapes follows partly the definition of electronic music, partly that of musique concrete, although one does not get further by this differentiation than by differentiating pianos, radios or whistles in Cage's piano music: nowhere is dualism Cage's aim. FONTANA MIX was the first comprehensive transposition of strictly experimental composition procedures-i.e. procedures of which the result is unforeseeable in the moment of their application- from instrumental or vocal music to tape music. Therefore the tapes do not claim to be final fixations of the musical oeuvre, but exist as potential versions of this oeuvre. With ARIA (1958) which can be sung, too, as one of the orchestral parts of Cage's Piano Concert, commences his newer vocal music which in respect to its vocal technique is partly anticipated in ARIA, whereas the compositional procedure remained that of the orchestral material of the Concert.

FONTANA MIX, incidentally, has been composed thanks to the autonomized procedure of one of the 84 notations used in the piano solo part of the Concert. The simultaneity of both pieces is established in the Piano Concert in which both theoretically are contained, in which they even practically could occur.

JOHN CAGE, born in Los Angeles in 1912 studied with Richard Buhlig, Adolph Weiss, Henry Cowell and Arnold Schoenberg. He has been a member of the faculty of the Cornish School in Seattle and of the School of Design in Chicago. He has written works for percussion instruments (AMORES and DOUBLE MUSIC written in conjunction with Lou Harrison have been released on Time Records Contemporary Sound Series 8000), compositions for the modern dance, prepared piano, magnetic tape, compositions by chance operations, indeterminacy of performance. His work brought him, in 1949, both a Guggenheim Fellowship and an award from the National Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1951, Mr. Cage organized a group to make music directly on magnetic tapes, producing in that way works by Christian Wolff, Morton Feldman, Earle Brown and himself. He has written for the Ballet Society, for the Donaueschinger Musiktage and for Merce Cunningham and Dance Company, of which he is musical director. He also composed the prize-winning score for Herbert Matter's film WORKS OF CALDER. His publisher is Peters Edition.

CATHY BERBERIAN was born in the United States of Armenian parents and began her artistic preparations in the theatre and ethnic dancing, and later in concerts, radio and television performances. Miss Berberian arrived in Europe in 1949 on a Fulbright scholarship, which enabled her to complete her vocal studies with Giorgina Del Vigo in Milan. Since 1953 she has appeared on European radio and in concerts in Europe, the United States and Canada. She is the wife of the composer Luciano Berio.