Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 2002. Vol. 8. Eger Journal of American Studies.(Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 28)

Studies - Péter Egri: (Per)chance: Joyce and Cage

so still she lay," "like some losthappy leaf," "like blowing flower stilled," "as fain would she anon," "for soon again 'twill be," "sister Isobel," or "Saintette Isabelle." The text is not simply "written," it is indeed "composed." It was John Cage's ingenious recognition that it could, in fact, be composed in a strictly musical sense: that it could be set to music. Cage focuses the same values as Joyce does. Cage's music sounds like the natural and sensitive elongation of Joyce's text. The quality of the voice part can be analysed in terms of Joyce's words. 1. The repetition of sustained, sonorous, slow and soft words is present both in the text and in the voice. The singing part even enhances these characteristics. The sound B representing "night" (bar 1) is a half note. When "night" returns in the text, B recurs in the voice (bar 2). Naturally long because of its diphthong, "night" appears to be even longer by dint of the linguistic pause following it. In a comparable way, being a half-note, the musical sound rendering "night" is long by its nature when it is first heard, and it is even longer when it comes back in bar 2, since it is dotted and tied to another B, in fact, another half note in bar 3. The latter is also tied to a B, and the rest of the bar is filled with rests. Even bar 4 begins with a quarter rest. As a tune sung, Joyce's text sounds increasingly sonorous, especially when it is performed by such rich (recorded) voices as those of Arlene Carmen, contralto, Cathy Berberian, contralto, Mutsumi Masuda, soprano, or Rosalind Rees, alto. Expressing the mood of night and dreamy, indeed dreaming desire, the Joycean words follow each other slowly. The tempo of Cage's music is also very slow with metronome marking 58 quarter notes to the minute. The time signature is 4/4 to the bar. Rests and tied notes are frequent. The calm of the night and the disposition of longing contemplation are also brought home by the expressive monotony of the tempo. As far as bar 20, no change of speed is marked. While to express the musical equivalent of growing emotional tension in "win me, woo me, wed me, ah" (in Cage's spelling "AH!") poco stringendo is prescribed in bars 20-22; to render the ultimate relaxation of tension by the end of the phrase "weary me! deeply" ritartando is required in bars 22 and 23, and a fermata is used at the end of bar 23. 71