November 9, 2015

European Premier of Party Pieces

Back in 2013, in honor of the 100th birthday of John Cage, the Forum of Contemporary Music Leipzig [FZML] asked me and 124 other composers to collectively write an exquisite corpse composition based on an idea of John Cage’s. Each of us wrote one page of manuscript, passing on only the last bar to the next composer. The sequence of composers was chosen by a random process involving tossing coins and consulting the I Ching, one of Cage’s favorite tools.


125 Party Pieces was premiered in New York by Ensemble Either/Or in October 2013 for the finale of the international Cage 100 Festival. The 125 manuscripts were exhibited at Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst, Leipzig, Germany in August-Spetember 2013.

Party Pieces will get its European premier in Leipzig on January 20, 2016 (tickets).

Thanks to Pierre Boulez for his patronage of this project and the German Federal Cultural Foundation for the funding.


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© Copyright 2015 Éric Marty