Alvin Curran: I Dreamed John Cage Yodelling in Zürich Bahnhof
Sound Art in 5.1 Format
Fri, June 03, 2005 8 pm CEST, Concert
It seemed like a strange dream when one evening in September 2002 the composer Alvin Curran, a student of John Cage’s, got off his train in Zurich to discover in the middle of the empty station hall an old man pushing a luggage trolley, absorbed in exploring the space's acoustic response to his yodeling.
This accidental encounter inspired Curran's piece for radio, I Dreamt John Cage Yodelling in Zürich Bahnhof, in which he weaves a world of »sound-dreams« around the anonymous yodelling man - among them disturbing and unsettling nightmares as well as cosy, comforting dreams. A »story without words« begins, and Curran weaves together »unimaginable« and no longer recognisable sounds with others very real [a basketball hitting the floor, the cry of a moose in heat, words spoken by John Cage] to produce a multi-layered sound space. This thrilling dream journey is particularly well served by the excellent acoustics of the ZKM Kubus.
Alvin Curran, born in 1938 in Providence, Rhode Island, studied music at Yale. In 1966 he was one of the co-founders of the group »musica elettronica viva«. Since 1992 he has been Professor of Composition at Mills College in Oakland, California. He has released a number of CDs and broadcast prize-winning radio works [being awarded, among others, a special award at Prix Italia 1984].
Composition and realisation: Alvin Curran
A production by the SWR Hörspiel/Vokalensemble 2004
This accidental encounter inspired Curran's piece for radio, I Dreamt John Cage Yodelling in Zürich Bahnhof, in which he weaves a world of »sound-dreams« around the anonymous yodelling man - among them disturbing and unsettling nightmares as well as cosy, comforting dreams. A »story without words« begins, and Curran weaves together »unimaginable« and no longer recognisable sounds with others very real [a basketball hitting the floor, the cry of a moose in heat, words spoken by John Cage] to produce a multi-layered sound space. This thrilling dream journey is particularly well served by the excellent acoustics of the ZKM Kubus.
Alvin Curran, born in 1938 in Providence, Rhode Island, studied music at Yale. In 1966 he was one of the co-founders of the group »musica elettronica viva«. Since 1992 he has been Professor of Composition at Mills College in Oakland, California. He has released a number of CDs and broadcast prize-winning radio works [being awarded, among others, a special award at Prix Italia 1984].
Composition and realisation: Alvin Curran
A production by the SWR Hörspiel/Vokalensemble 2004
- Organization / Institution
- ZKM