I remember that Liam o’Flynn worked with avant-garde composer the late John Cage.
Somebody knows recordings of this cooperation or any information?
thanks
carel
Carel.
I know John Cage did a piece called “Roaratorio”
It was a load of traditional musicians scattered all over the audience seats of a theatre. The deal was that they had to play what they wanted to so long as none of them played the same thing.
It was done in the late 1980’s for the bringing it all home tv series with O’Flynn, Paddy Glackin (fiddle), TonyMcMahon (accordeon), I forget who else but at least 5/6 more. Sean Nos singers, flutes, bodhrans,etc, all the while John Cage sat on stage reading pieces from Finnegans Wake.
That was a repeat of a performance cone in the early 1970’s. Seamus Ennis played pipes then.
Try this link though
http://www.hummingbird.ie/infohbdvd001.html
Tommy
I have the CD of Roaratorio with Seamus Ennis on it - recorded in Paris. I know that O’Flynn came over to do the piece in Toronto and that Joe Heaney was among the performers.
The idea is that with all the different sounds, Cage was recreating the sounds of Dublin as background for the reading.
thanks Tommy and Jim for this usefull information.
Carel
Posted: Fri Sep 24, 2004 10:33 pm Post subject:
Carel.
I know John Cage did a piece called “Roaratorio”
It was a load of traditional musicians scattered all over the audience seats of a theatre. The deal was that they had to play what they wanted to so long as none of them played the same thing.
Sounds like a few sessions I’ve attended 
I attended a number of Cage performances over the years including Roaratorio at the Brookly Academy of Music. I remember it fondly, although I don’t remember if there Uilleann pipe players or not. I was fortunate to have met Cage a number of times and actually being conducted by him when I was in College. There was nothing like a Cage concert when he was alive, and Roaratorio was no exception. The title was from Finnegans Wake as was the text read if I remember correctly. And there were Irish Musicians spread all over the Academy stage with speakers blasting from every angle. It was really great. I miss Cage.
I attended a number of Cage performances over the years including Roaratorio at the Brookly Academy of Music. I remember it fondly, although I don’t remember if there Uilleann pipe players or not. I was fortunate to have met Cage a number of times and actually being conducted by him when I was in College. There was nothing like a Cage concert when he was alive, and Roaratorio was no exception. The title was from Finnegans Wake as was the text read if I remember correctly. And there were Irish Musicians spread all over the Academy stage with speakers blasting from every angle. It was really great. I miss Cage.
Jim wrote
“I have the CD of Roaratorio with Seamus Ennis on it - recorded in Paris.”
That sounds great, Is the Cd still to order you think.
When you search for him in the archive you get a lott of
c-a-g-e combinations.
I konw Cage specially from his pieces fot prepared piano.
putting all kind of things to the strings.
Carel
I loved the sense of humour behind “Music for Heavenly Trumpets.”
djm
I’ve always been fond of his piano concerto for piano and orchestra, don’t remember the # or listing. Three complete movements with not a single note…just bars and bars of ‘rests’. That’s funny, though the audience nor the critics seemed to think so at the time…I quess there’s no acounting for taste. 
I found the CD on eBAY. You can hear what Ennis is playing throughout for the most part.
I think that was 4’33" or something (named for the length of the piece). Little did the audience realize that their reaction WAS the piece. I also really liked his concerto for burning piano…
…a true genius, of that I have no doubt.
one of cages cohorts, nam june paik, had a most unique approach to the violin… The artist, born in 1932 in Seoul, Korea, first began thinking about video as an art form in 1959, when he mentioned the idea in a letter to John Cage. His training was in philosophy and music, first at the University of Tokyo and then in Germany, at the University of Munich and the conservatory in Freiburg. Paik came to video, in fact, by way of music, and he credits a 1958 meeting with Cage for marking a turning point in his art and life. In an early performance piece in Germany called One for Violin, Cage’s influence was unmistakable. Paik stood facing the audience, holding a violin by the neck with both hands. Slowly, with almost imperceptible movements, he raised the instrument over his head. Then he brought the violin crashing down on a table in front of him, smashing the instrument to bits. These and other performances, such as the ones that involved destroying pianos and another that entailed licking the dust from the pedals, led one music critic to dub him “the world’s most famous bad pianist.”
http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/one-for-violin-solo/ ahhhh, the lively arts!
Brilliant stuff, that. It would’ve been something to have been in that audience. I wonder what make of violin it was…I’m hoping not a Stradivarius or the like.
Uh oh, do I sense another petition coming insisting that older uilleann pipe instruments NOT participate in certain Cage compositions?
indeed not! but hey wait a minute. art imitating, life imitating, something like that. maybe i could be the nam june paik of 'cordeens. yeah that’s it!