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
not suppress the voice. A measure of violence is even implied in Joyce's allusions to the Mark —Tristram —Iseult relationship and their contemporary correlatives. Soft noises may even increase silence. The quasi-drum-rolls lend a mysterious dimension to the dreaming shifts of Joyce's piece. If, however, Cage uses the piano as a percussion instrument, then "Why use a piano?" —as Richard Barnes, associate professor of English at Pomona College, aptly asks in his witty paper "Our Distinguished Dropout." (Barnes — Kostelanetz, JCA 50) Even if part of the explanation might be, as Barnes also suggests, Cage's inclination for theatricality and the audience's knowledge that the instrument being struck is a piano, and even if drumming on the piano is not inconsistent with Joyce's text, the element of arbitrariness in drumming on the piano rather than on a drum (or a percussion quartet) is certainly there. In one of the recordings of The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs the piano is, in fact, replaced by a percussion instrument (Kostelanetz, JCA 231). Cage's famous prepared piano in Sonatas and Interludes (1946-8) with screws, nuts, bolts, rubber, erasers and plastic mutes between the strings removing "pitch characteristic of scales and modes ... is a percussion ensemble under the control of a single player." (Cage — Kostelanetz, JCA 76) The range of voice in The Wonderful Widow is also surrounded by accidental circumstances. Although in the voice part, Cage has unambiguously indicated pitches by regular musical notes, in his note for the singer he remarks, "Make any transposition necessary in order to employ a low and comfortable range." (Cage, WWES 2) In some recordings the singer is female (Mutsumi Masuda), in another case he is male (Robert Wyatt). Sometimes the kind of voice is described (Cathy Berberian, contralto), at other times it is not, and is just referred to in unspecified generality after the name (Joan La Barbara, voice). Chance is looming large in Cage's principle of indeterminacy, not unrelated even at this early stage to later Postmodern positions. Can composition by chance be more pervasive? Perchance it can. So Cage's subsequent works suggest, and so his later treatments of Finnegans Wake seem to prove (Writing through Finnegans Wake 1977, Writing for the Second Time through Finne gans Wake 1977, Writings through Finnegans Wake 1978, Roaratorio , an Irish Circus 77
