Analysis Of The Perilous Night By Cage

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Recommended: Cage's philosophy of music

Outside of this work having one of most unique example of musical notation that this writer has ever encountered, this work is part of a number of pieces by Cage that emphasized his use of the aspects of machinery, silence, and chance. According to scholar Pritchett, Cage had been using the advanced, percussive technique of prepared piano around 1940 to allow new sound to augment many of his compositions prior to the one in questions; thus making procedure almost mainstream around the time of his works The Perilous Night (1944), A Book of Music (1944), and Three Dances (1945). In addition to this musical advancement, Crumb embraced the concept of silence to best bring weight and saturation to the sounds that happen among a performance, thus providing a more powerful musical aesthetic. Works like 4’33’’ highlighted this notion in his compositional style.

The abstract score is also a nod to the composer’s appreciation of chance within a performance. As with silence, the idea of random, yet highly structured chances in sound …show more content…

In the suggested performance notes, one may notice the great deal of space between only the piano and brass choir, yet also between the members of the brass players as well. Sonically, this places a great deal on the harmonic distances within the score whic gives the piece an ethereal and dark timbre amidst the often busy piano lines and brass flourishes. Additionally, the variances in physical space also contributes to a unique performance experience for both the audience members and the musician. This is a technique that is also used and seen in other works by Xenakis, including Terretektorh and Nomos gamma, where he places audience members among the orchestral

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