When a composer starts to compose on 64 chess squares, it takes 72 years for 3 musicians to perform it in Karlsruhe: John Cage’s »Chess Pieces«, plus a folkloristic, Irish influenced »Four Dances« and Tom Johnson’s »Rational Melodies« based on a series of numbers. Trio Omphalos is playing in the rare lineup of clarinet, drums and piano. Numbers games in the guise of music, equations with several unknown variables and the guaranteed value added of a fascinatingly innovative and surprising dance music.
Trio Omphalos has been performing original and exciting programmes with new music since it was founded (2006). The trio discovered John Cage’s “Chess Pieces” in 2012, a graphic image composition by Cage that the pianist Margret Lang Tan translated into a piano version. Trio Omphalos has created an expressive and colourful trio version out of this. The »Four Dances« are actually written for piano, voice and drums. The clarinettist takes over the tenor voice here.
Tom Johnson’s graceful and wonderful Rational Melodies build the bridge between the two John Cage compositions.
The concert is taking place as part of a CD production in the ZKM Cube | Karlsruhe.
Programme
| John Cage | Chess Pieces (1944) |
| John Cage | Four Dances (1942–43) |
| Tom Johnson | Rational Melodies (1982), 21 systematic melodies for one or any number of instruments |