One 11 and 103

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Shortly before his death, John Cage completed his only film, One 11, in collaboration with Henning Lohner . This is a feature film and was premiered on September 19, 1992 in Cologne. One 11 is a black and white film with no plot or subjects and is therefore often performed in combination with Cage's play 103 . Like many of Cage's works, this was also created in conjunction with random operations (see: Aleatorics ).

The film deals with the effect of light in an empty room and the perception of it. The perception of emptiness and silence was taken up by Cage as early as 1952 and musically examined with the silent piece 4'33 " .

construction

One 11

The film is often portrayed as a major challenge for camera work and lighting. The black-and-white film, without any subject or subject, is 90 minutes long and consists of light projections in a dark room. The editing, the camera work and the incidence of light were subjected to random operations by a computer, which are a recurring element in Cage's works. Like 103, the film consists of 17 parts. Each of the parts is characterized by 1200 random operations.

Cage himself said: “Of course the film will be about the effect of light in an empty room. But no room is really empty and the light shows what is actually in the room. And all of the space and all of the light are controlled by random operations. "

In addition, there is the acoustic background that Cage lets run parallel to the film without the two components ever referring to each other. Various pieces that were composed by Cage at an earlier point in time and all of which were selected from the series of Number Pieces come into question. Cage does not commit himself to the selection of the pieces; in the original, however, 103 was played to the projections. Cage himself was not the performer of the media composition; rather, he left this to the cameraman Van Theodore Carlson, who thus had control over the execution of the random operations and over the camera arm.

103

One 11 can also be performed with Cage's piece 103. In structure, 103 resembles a symphony and is divided into four movements: A, B, C, D. Silence is used here as a recurring element; it is used at the beginning, between the sentences and at the end. In addition, Cage used percussion instruments that are not specifically named; however, these should be different from one another and be resonant. The symphony-like piece consists of a total of 17 sections.

Variations

The film can also be performed with the accompanying music 108. The piece can be performed as a cello concerto with One 8 , as a Sho concerto with one of the three movements of One 9 and as a double concerto with Sho and five shell horns with one of the three movements of Two 3 . One 8 and 108 was premiered on November 30, 1991 by the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, with Michael Bach , a cello soloist, with his typical curved bow. As with many of Cage's works, he did not commit himself to the instrumentation and accompanying music. So he left his performing artists the autonomy to make their own decision, as was the case with 4'33 ″ .

Production and premiere

For a long time, Cage had refused to make a film, but the film composer and media artist Henning Lohner finally convinced him to make a feature film for the cinema and television. One 11 was shot on 35mm film in 1992 in a Munich television studio, directed by Lohner and camera work by Van Theodore Carlson . Filming began on April 22nd with twelve team members.

Production was completed just weeks before Cage's death in the summer of 1992. The film had its world premiere on September 19, 1992 in Cologne, musically accompanied by Cage's Work 103 , which was performed by the WDR Symphony Orchestra under the direction of the conductor Arturo Tamayo .

On the DVD, which was published by Mode Records, viewers have the opportunity to choose between two different orchestral concerts from 103 as background music for the film: on the one hand, the version that was played at the premiere by the WDR Symphony Orchestra, and a performance by Spoleto Festival Orchestra.

Media compositions

John Cage himself rarely commented on the subject of media composition, as he often took the function of his actions for granted. However , he commented on the film One 11 and intended that the audience would find themselves through the film, free of economic and political problems. Cage wanted to show the viewer that no room is empty, even though it appears that way. This is similar to the concept of the silence of 4'33 ”, with which he wanted to prove that there is no such thing as absolute silence, but that there are always - even if unintentional - noises. So the film is not about light in an empty room, but about a dark room that is revealed by the light. The light thus shows what is present in the room, and at the same time provides proof that this room cannot be empty and thus no room is ever really empty.

In an article on Cage, Hans Rudolf Zeller wrote: “Media composition tries, still in the context of the media and in contradiction to their demands, to answer that the traditional concept of composition has changed irrevocably even under pressure and from the once constitutive context was isolated from interpretations and hearing [...]. ”This can also be transferred to Cage's media composition, in that Cage did not ascribe any higher importance to his film. This motif can be linked to Cage's earlier compositional lack of intent, which he found in silence, which becomes clear at 0'00 " and 4'33" .

reception

One 11 was received euphorically by critics and filmmakers. The French film director Louis Malle described the film as "very strong, very bold and absolutely fascinating". In the British avant-garde music magazine The Wire , the critic Peter Peter Clark wrote that the images of the "extraordinary" film were so "disarming" and "impressive" that even the eyes could "listen very carefully". In the blog The Sound of Eye was one 11 called a "masterpiece".

Critic Peter Dickinson called One 11 in Gramophone magazine "a great project that was carried out with dedication by everyone involved" and praised the "extraordinary quality of these unique, purely visual images, light studies that range from complete black to absolute white. [...] The play of light lets slowly moving, circular objects appear, which are eerily reminiscent of distant moons from outer space and which raise everlasting questions about human existence. "

Individual evidence

  1. ^ John Cage Complete Works. Retrieved November 15, 2018 .
  2. ↑ a b John Cage Spezial / One11 with 103 (1992 film). Retrieved December 5, 2017 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e One11 and 103. Retrieved December 5, 2017 .
  4. ↑ One11 and 103 on YouTube
  5. ^ Heinz-Klaus Metzger: The released music - writings on John Cage . 2012, p. 149 .
  6. ↑ Kenneth Silverman: Begin Again: A Biography of John Cage . Northwestern University Press, 2012, ISBN 978-0-8101-2830-9 ( google.de [accessed November 19, 2018]).
  7. ^ John Cage - Volume 36: One11 with 103. Retrieved November 15, 2018 .
  8. ↑ Kenneth Silverman: Begin Again: A Biography of John Cage . Northwestern University Press, 2012, ISBN 978-0-8101-2830-9 ( google.de [accessed November 19, 2018]).
  9. ↑ CL: Cage: 103 . March 12, 2018 ( wdr.de [accessed November 15, 2018]).
  10. ^ John Cage - Volume 36: One11 with 103. Retrieved November 15, 2018 .
  11. ^ A b Hans Rudolf Zeller: John Cage I (Music Concepts Special Volume) . 1990, p. 110 .
  12. ↑ 4'33 minutes of silence. Retrieved February 25, 2017 .
  13. ↑ Cineinfinito # 59: John Cage - CINEINFINITO . In: CINEINFINITO . ( cineinfinito.org [accessed November 19, 2018]).
  14. ^ John Cage - Volume 36: One11 with 103. Retrieved November 19, 2018 .
  15. ^ The Sound of Eye: JOHN CAGE & HENNING LOHNER ONE11 WITH 103 (1992). In: The Sound of Eye. Retrieved November 19, 2018 .
  16. ↑ Peter Dickinson: John Cage - One and 103. January 9, 2013, accessed November 19, 2018 .