Cascando
Encyclopedia
Radio drama
Radio drama is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance, broadcast on radio or published on audio media, such as tape or CD. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine the characters and story...
by Samuel Beckett
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...
. It was written in French in December 1961, subtitled Invention radiophonique pour musique et voix, with music by the Franco-Romanian composer Marcel Mihalovici
Marcel Mihalovici
Marcel Mihalovici was a French composer born in Romania. He was discovered by George Enescu in Bucharest. He moved to Paris in 1919 to study under Vincent d'Indy...
. It was first broadcast on France Culture
France Culture
France Culture is a French public radio channel and part of Radio France. Its programming encompasses a wide variety of features on historical, philosophical, sociopolitical, and scientific themes , as well as literary readings, radio plays, and experimental productions...
on 13 October 1963 with Roger Blin
Roger Blin
Roger Blin was a French actor and director notable for directing the first production of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot....
(L’Oeuverer) and Jean Martin (La Voix). The first English production was on 6 October 1964 on BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3 is a national radio station operated by the BBC within the United Kingdom. Its output centres on classical music and opera, but jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also feature. The station is the world’s most significant commissioner of new music, and its New Generation...
with Denys Hawthorne (Opener) and Patrick Magee
Patrick Magee (actor)
Patrick Magee was a Northern Irish actor best known for his collaborations with Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter, as well as his appearances in horror films and in Stanley Kubrick's films A Clockwork Orange and Barry Lyndon.-Early life:He was born Patrick McGee in Armagh, County Armagh, Northern...
(Voice).
“The play was originally to be called Calando, a musical term meaning ‘diminishing in tone’ (equivalent to diminuendo or decrescendo), but Beckett changed it when ORTF
Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française
The Office de Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française was the national agency charged, between 1964 and 1974, with providing public radio and television in France.-Post World War II:...
officials pointed out that calendos was the slang
Slang
Slang is the use of informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's language or dialect but are considered more acceptable when used socially. Slang is often to be found in areas of the lexicon that refer to things considered taboo...
word for camembert in French.” The term ‘cascando’ (‘cascades’) involves the decrease of volume and the deceleration of tempo.
‘Cascando’ is also the title of a 1936 poem by Beckett.
Structure
“Beckett first wrote out the complete part for Opener, inserting the spaces for Voice and Music, before writing out the complete part for Voice. The music was then composed separately by Marcel Mihalovici, who, of course, at that time had the text as guidance, and only then were the three parts combined and produced in the studio by [the director].”“The duration of the individual interjections for Voice and Music correspond to each other, so that when Voice speaks for ten seconds, for instance, Music too is held for the same amount of time. Furthermore, when Voice repeats his foregoing account, Music too plays a slightly varied repeat of its previous phrase. There is a musical crescendo at the end of the play, and a gradual fade-out, which corresponds to the build-up of anticipation in Voice's documentation of his protagonist’s progression towards his goal and Voice's own longing for the close of the story to end all stories.”
Synopsis
The play opens with a familiar Beckettian theme, the search to put an end to language: “—story . . . if you could finish it . . . you could rest . . . sleep . . . not before”. “The shape of the narrative itself is indicative of the mind already in the process of degenerating towards an impasse. Voice alternates between talking about the story-telling itself, or the need to find the story to end all stories, and narrating [what it hopes will be that final] story.”The persona has been divided up. “Voice is aware that his own identity is bound up with his fiction (‘I’m there … somewhere’) and that it is his own quest to find himself.” Why words and music? Perhaps to emphasis the limitations of words, a life-long preoccupation with Beckett. Broadly speaking words convey meaning, music feeling; Opener is trying to combine these two elements to tell a more rounded version of his story. “If Voice is Opener's own mental voice, and Music is his emotional faculty, then Woburn may be the objectification
Objectification
Objectification is the process by which an abstract concept is made as objective as possible in the purest sense of the term. It is also treated as if it is a concrete thing or physical object...
of Opener himself.”
Cascando involves a fear of finishing in the wrong place, or in the wrong way. At the end of the play the three ‘characters’ enjoy a moment when they ‘speak’ in unison. “As though they had linked their arms,” says Opener who then pronounces his creation, “Good.” The play ends, the actors pack up and go home. For many it may not be a satisfactory ending – it lacks closure
Closure (psychology)
Closure or need for closure is a popular psychology term used to describe an individual's desire for a definite cognitive closure as opposed to enduring ambiguity...
– but it has reached an end, Woburn drifts out to sea. The open ending is a mainstay of the film industry epitomized by Shane’s riding off into the distance at the end of George Stevens
George Stevens
George Stevens was an American film director, producer, screenwriter and cinematographer.Among his most notable films were Diary of Anne Frank , nominated for Best Director, Giant , winner of Oscar for Best Director, Shane , Oscar nominated, and A Place in the Sun , winner of Oscar for Best...
’s 1953 film of the same name. This is as close as Beckett comes to one of his characters sailing off into the sunset.
Beckett has said of Cascando: "It is an unimportant work but the best I have to offer. It does I suppose in a way show what passes for my mind and what passes for its work."
Opener
“His opening statement, 'It is the month of May . . . for me,' suggests, as critics have remarked, that it is the time for creation or “ritual renewing”. Approximately two thirds of the way into the play, he says 'Yes, correct, the month of May. You know, the reawakening'. He repeats, a little later, 'Yes, correct, the month of May, the close of May,' but at this point he reminds us that the days are long in this month, so that their ends are always postponed.”At one point Opener reveals how he has been ridiculed by people saying, “it’s in his head.” He is a writer/story-teller – his lives in his head – but the locals (his critics) obviously don’t appreciate his work. He used to object but he doesn’t even try and explain anymore, he doesn’t even respond to them nowadays. He’s resigned himself to the fact that he is misunderstood. He recalls painful trips he used to make, one to the village and a second to the inn. Woburn too has developed a fear of interacting with people.
Opener identifies strongly with Woburn, It may be that rather than simply a story this is a plan of action, a run through of what he either intends to do or wishes he could do, a Thanatos wish
Death instinct
In classical Freudian psychoanalytic theory, the death drive is the drive towards death, self-destruction and the return to the inorganic: 'the hypothesis of a death instinct, the task of which is to lead organic life back into the inanimate state'...
. Part of him wants to give up but the writer in him (personified as Voice) can’t give up. Opener’s remark, “I'm afraid to open. But I must open. So I open,” is all too familiar Beckett reasoning, echoing the Unnamable's
The Unnamable (novel)
The Unnamable is a 1953 novel by Samuel Beckett. It is the third and final entry in Beckett's "Trilogy" of novels, which begins with Molloy followed by Malone Dies. It was originally published in French as L'Innommable and later adapted by the author into English...
“you must go on, I can't go on, I'll go on”, the leitmotif
Leitmotif
A leitmotif , sometimes written leit-motif, is a musical term , referring to a recurring theme, associated with a particular person, place, or idea. It is closely related to the musical idea of idée fixe...
which Beckett embraces in all his work. Like other Beckett characters (e.g. May in Footfalls
Footfalls
Footfalls is a play by Samuel Beckett. It was written in English, between 2 March and December 1975 and was first performed at the Royal Court Theatre as part of the Samuel Beckett Festival, on May 20, 1976 directed by Beckett himself. Billie Whitelaw, for whom the piece had been written, played...
), writing, although clearly not the most pleasant of activities, sustains him: “they don’t see what I live on.” (Roberta Satow’s article on "repetition compulsion
Repetition compulsion
Repetition compulsion is a psychological phenomenon in which a person repeats a traumatic event or its circumstances over and over again. This includes reenacting the event or putting oneself in situations where the event is likely to happen again...
" makes interesting reading here: http://www.robertasatow.com/psych.html).
We think of Samuel Beckett as a writer but in reality that was only one aspect of the whole man. His output was certainly not large and he was plagued with long bouts of ‘writer’s block
Writer's block
Writer's block is a condition, primarily associated with writing as a profession, in which an author loses the ability to produce new work. The condition varies widely in intensity. It can be trivial, a temporary difficulty in dealing with the task at hand. At the other extreme, some "blocked"...
’, always stuck “between the limitations of words and the infinity of feelings” as Kafka
Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka was a culturally influential German-language author of short stories and novels. Contemporary critics and academics, including Vladimir Nabokov, regard Kafka as one of the best writers of the 20th century...
put it, and yet this aspect of him kept pushing him a little further from the shore, metaphor
Metaphor
A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...
ically speaking. As he got older and older he must have considered that every work might be his last. He must have thought that with Stirrings Still
Stirrings Still
Stirrings Still is the final prose piece by Samuel Beckett. Written 1986-9 to give his American publisher, Barney Rosset, something to publish. First published in a signed limited edition, it was later republished in the posthumous edition As The Story Was Told...
; as its title suggests, after all this time his imagination was still stirring, still clinging on for dear life.
Voice
When instructed by Opener Voice begins mid-sentence, reminiscent of Krapp’sKrapp's Last Tape
Krapp's Last Tape is a one-act play, written in English, by Samuel Beckett. Consisting of a cast of one man, it was originally written for Northern Irish actor Patrick Magee and first titled "Magee monologue"...
taped diary entries. When told to stop he does in the same way. Cutting off the voice makes it sound like Voice is pre-recorded and Opener is simply switching on and off, like Macgillycuddy in Rough for Radio I
Rough for Radio I
Rough for Radio I is a short radio play by Samuel Beckett, written in French in 1961 and first published in Minuit 5 in September 1973 as Esquisse radiophinique. Its first English publication as Sketch for Radio Play was in Stereo Headphones 7...
, but this isn’t the case.
Voice jumps straight to describing his ongoing need to complete a last story, to say what needs to be said, and keep on with this tale until its end; then he will be able to “rest [and] sleep … not before.” Voice is desperate. Like Henry in Embers
Embers
Embers is a radio play by Samuel Beckett. It was written in English in 1957 and first broadcast on the BBC Third Programme on 24 June 1959. Donald McWhinnie directed Jack MacGowran – for whom the play was specially written – as “Henry”, Kathleen Michael as “Ada” and Patrick Magee as “Riding Master”...
he’s never been able to finish any of his stories and he knows he won’t have any peace until he does.
Throughout the play Voice returns to these thoughts, willing himself on, determined this will be his final attempt, convinced this is the right story. The ache in is voice is tangible – “Come on! Come on!” – as if everything has been invested in this story’s ending. Towards the close of the play Opener joins him in this geeing-on closely followed by Voice confirming, “—at last … we’re there” acknowledging that he has not been entirely alone in the creative process.
Woburn
Beckett told his friend, the scholar Alec Reid that this play is “about the character Woburn who never appears”. The story that Voice devises concerns this man (whose very name “intimates a stream of woe”). In the original French text, he is called Maunu (“naked miseries”). Woburn/Maunu has had a long life and a misfortunate one which has changed him but he’s still recognizable as the man he once was five or even ten years earlier.He hides in a shed until nightfall so no one he used to know notices him. When he sees through the window it’s getting dark he slips out. Two routes present themselves: “right the sea … left the hills … he has the choice.” “Voice delivers his lines in a rapid, panting, almost unintelligible stream, very much like Mouth in Not I
Not I
Not I is a twenty-minute dramatic monologue written in 1972 by Samuel Beckett, translated as Pas Moi; premiere at the “Samuel Beckett Festival” by the Repertory Theater of Lincoln Center, New York , directed by Alan Schneider, with Jessica Tandy and Henderson Forsythe .-Synopsis:Not I takes place...
. The man makes his decision and heads down the steep slope towards the sea. Beckett refers to the road as a “boreen
Boreen
Boreen or bohereen is an anglicised, Hiberno-English term normally meaning a narrow, frequently unpaved, rural road in Ireland. "Boreen" also appears sometimes in names of minor urban roads such as Saint Mobhi Bóithrín , commonly known as Mobhi Boreen in Glasnevin, Dublin....
” which gives us a specific location for the story, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
. All of a sudden he falls flat on his face in the mud. Woburn, we learn, is a huge man, dressed in an old coat with a broad brimmed hat jammed on his head. He stumbles along with the aid of a walking stick and so it takes some effort to get back on his feet.
Vague memories pass through is head, a cave, a hollow, some sort of shelter. He’s been here before, a long time ago perhaps but he is still anxious in case he is identified; the night is too bright and the beach offers no cover but he’s in luck, there’s not a soul about. He goes down again, this time onto the sand. He can hear the sea now. It represents peace. He gets up but has to struggle on knee-deep in the sand. He reaches the stones, falls, heaves himself up. He tries to hurry. In the distance he can see the lights of an island.
Woburn finds the shell of a boat. It has “no tiller
Tiller
A tiller or till is a lever attached to a rudder post or rudder stock of a boat that provides leverage for the helmsman to turn the rudder...
… no thwarts … no oar
Oar
An oar is an implement used for water-borne propulsion. Oars have a flat blade at one end. Oarsmen grasp the oar at the other end. The difference between oars and paddles are that paddles are held by the paddler, and are not connected with the vessel. Oars generally are connected to the vessel by...
s” but he drags it free and in doing so slips once more, this time into the bilge
Bilge
The bilge is the lowest compartment on a ship where the two sides meet at the keel. The word was coined in 1513.-Bilge water:The word is sometimes also used to describe the water that collects in this compartment. Water that does not drain off the side of the deck drains down through the ship into...
. He manages to cling on, possibly to the gunnels
Gunwale
The gunwale is a nautical term describing the top edge of the side of a boat.Wale is the same word as the skin injury, a wheal, which, too, forms a ridge. Originally the gunwale was the "Gun ridge" on a sailing warship. This represented the strengthening wale or structural band added to the design...
, and it drags him towards the island but that’s not his goal. He passes it and allows himself to be pulled out to sea (reminiscent of the character in The End). He’s there, “nowhere”, in the middle of nowhere.
But peace eludes him – he keeps clinging on, torn between the will to live and the need to die – and so the end eludes Voice – desperate for sleep, desperate to be done – who keeps hanging on to the end of his story waiting for it to end but incapable of actually ending it. He is unable to give himself up, as Beckett wrote in Murphy, to "the positive peace that comes when something gives way ... to the Nothing."
Music
Voice has two strands, the story about Woburn and his personal need to complete this story. Music never accompanies the story itself, only those parts of the text where Voice is self-referential. However, when music follows the Woburn story it reflects what has just been said, it extracts the emotional component from it and presents it in isolation. It is as if Opener has just finished reading the text Voice has written and this is his emotional response to it.There are very few musical cues/clues in the text. In the original French “libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
”, as Vivian Mercier
Vivian Mercier
Vivian Mercier was an Irish literary critic. He was born in Clara, County Offaly, Ireland and educated first at Portora Royal School, Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh, and then at Trinity College, Dublin. He became a Scholar of the College and edited the student magazine T.C.D...
calls the text, there are only two ‘musical’ stage directions: “brève” (“brief”), used twice and “faiblissant” (“weakening”) which occurs only once. Mercier fancifully calls Cascando, along with Words and Music
Words and Music (play)
Samuel Beckett wrote the radio play, Words and Music between November and December 1961. It was recorded and broadcast on the BBC Third Programme on 13 November 1962. Patrick Magee played Words and Felix Felton, Croak. Music was composed especially by John Beckett. The play first appeared in print...
, “a new genre
Genre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...
– invisible opera.”
Voice’s story is “accompanied by surges of non-verbal consciousness, the swell of emotions expressed in the music.” In correspondence with Claus Zilliacus, Mihalovici, who composed the original score, made it clear that he considered his music to be a character: “For Cascando … it was not a matter of a musical commentary on the text but of creating, by musical means, a third character, so to speak, who sometimes intervenes alone, sometimes along with the narrator, without however merely being the accompaniment for him.” but Ruby Cohn maintains that “it actually functions like background music
Background music
Although background music was by the end of the 20th century generally identified with Muzak or elevator music, there are several stages in the development of this concept.-Antecedents:...
.” The tape of that first broadcast “was accidentally erased. This is especially unfortunate since Beckett took an active part in the rehearsals.”
Humphey Searle’s approach was to work with leitmotif
Leitmotif
A leitmotif , sometimes written leit-motif, is a musical term , referring to a recurring theme, associated with a particular person, place, or idea. It is closely related to the musical idea of idée fixe...
s: "The chief motif, 'Woburn', would, Humphrey thought, be associated with the flute
Flute
The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
. Other motifs would be the 'island' and 'the journey', one linked with ethereal light and space, the other with restlessness and images of falling, getting up again, walking with a stick and so on. Some of these were humorous - 'same old stick ... same old broadbrim' - some darkly agitated.”
A more recent version was composed by Martin Pearlman
Martin Pearlman
Martin Pearlman is an American conductor, harpsichordist, composer, and early-music specialist. In the1973-74 season, he founded Boston Baroque , the first permanent period-instrument orchestra in North America...
on a commission by the 92nd Street Y
92nd Street Y
92nd Street Y is a multifaceted cultural institution and community center located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States, at the corner of E. 92nd Street and Lexington Avenue. Its full name is 92nd Street Young Men's and Young Women's Hebrew Association...
in New York for the Beckett centennial (2006). Lloyd Schwartz of the Boston Phoenix wrote that "Pearlman's evocative music seemed so right for these unsettling plays, it's now hard for me to imagine them without it."
Composers
“Although the general contract specifies that Cascando should not be performed without Mihalovici’s music,” a number of other composers have worked on various productions and have created their own works based on the play.To accompany a radio/stage production
Lodewijk de Boer: Toneelgroep Studio / NOSNederlandse Omroep Stichting
The Nederlandse Omroep Stichting , English: Netherlands Broadcasting Foundation, is one of the broadcasters in the Netherlands Public Broadcasting system...
, 1970
Philip Perkins: Univ. of the Pacific, ( for electric guitar and other sounds) 1971 http://web.me.com/seeadog/Philip_Perkins/Performances_of_other_composers_work_.html
Philip Glass
Philip Glass
Philip Glass is an American composer. He is considered to be one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century and is widely acknowledged as a composer who has brought art music to the public .His music is often described as minimalist, along with...
: Mabou Mines
Mabou Mines
Mabou Mines is an avant-garde theatre company founded in 1970 and based in New York City.-History:Mabou Mines is a collaborative, avant-garde theater company based in New York City...
, 1975 (Apmonia entry on Glass)
Wayne Horvitz
Wayne Horvitz
Wayne Horvitz is an American composer, keyboardist and record producer.-Biography:Horvitz, a "defiant cross-breeder of genres", has led the groups The President, Pigpen, Zony Mash, and the Four Plus One Ensemble...
: Theater for Your Mother, 1979 (for trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
and vocalists) http://www.wnur.org/jazz./artists/horvitz.wayne/discog.html
Humphrey Searle
Humphrey Searle
Humphrey Searle was a British composer.-Biography:He was born in Oxford where he was a classics scholar before studying — somewhat hesitantly — with John Ireland at the Royal College of Music in London, after which he went to Vienna on a six month scholarship to become a private pupil of Anton...
: Produced by: Katherine Worth for UL-AVC, 1984
William Kraft
William Kraft
William Kraft is a composer, conductor, teacher, and percussionist.-Undergrad and Graduate School Years :...
: co-production of Voices International and Horspiel Studio lll, WDR
Westdeutscher Rundfunk
Westdeutscher Rundfunk is a German public-broadcasting institution based in the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia with its main office in Cologne. WDR is a constituent member of the consortium of German public-broadcasting institutions, ARD...
, 1989
Peter Jacquemyn: BRT
Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroep
The Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroeporganisatie , or VRT, is a publicly-funded broadcaster of radio and television in Flanders ....
, 1991
Gerard Victory
Gerard Victory
Gerard Victory was a prolific Irish composer, writing over two hundred works across many genres and styles including tonal, serial, aleatoric and electroacoustic music.-Biography:Victory was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1921...
: RTÉ
Raidió Teilifís Éireann
Raidió Teilifís Éireann is a semi-state company and the public service broadcaster of Ireland. It both produces programmes and broadcasts them on television, radio and the Internet. The radio service began on January 1, 1926, while regular television broadcasts began on December 31, 1961, making...
radio broadcast, 1991
Dan Plonsey
Dan Plonsey
Dan Plonsey is a jazz saxophonist, popularly labeled as a free jazz musician. -Career:...
: Three Chairs Productions, 2002 http://www.plonsey.com/
Obadiah Eaves: Division 13 Productions, 2003 http://www.division13.org/work/cascando.html
David J
David J
David John Haskins , better known as David J, is a British alternative rock musician. He was the bassist for the gothic rock band Bauhaus and Love and Rockets....
(founding member Bauhaus
Bauhaus (band)
Bauhaus was an English rock band formed in Northampton in 1978. The group consisted of Peter Murphy , Daniel Ash , Kevin Haskins and David J . The band was originally Bauhaus 1919 before they dropped the numerical portion within a year of formation...
/Love and Rockets
Love and Rockets (band)
Love and Rockets were an English alternative rock band formed in 1985 by former Bauhaus members Daniel Ash , David J , and Kevin Haskins . Former Bauhaus vocalist Peter Murphy had embarked on a solo career after Bauhaus split in 1983...
): Devaughan Theatre, 2005
David Tam: WKCR
WKCR
WKCR-FM is a radio station. Licensed to New York, New York, USA, it serves the New York area. The station is currently owned by Trustees of Columbia University in New York.-History:...
in association with Columbia University Arts Initiative, 2006
Martin Pearlman
Martin Pearlman
Martin Pearlman is an American conductor, harpsichordist, composer, and early-music specialist. In the1973-74 season, he founded Boston Baroque , the first permanent period-instrument orchestra in North America...
: 92nd Street Y Poets’ Theatre in association with Nine Circles Chamber Theater, 2006
Paul Clark: Gare St Lazare Players Ireland, RTÉ radio broadcast, 2006
Concert pieces
Elisabeth LutyensElisabeth Lutyens
Elisabeth Lutyens, CBE was a significant English composer.- Early life and education :She was one of the five children of architect Sir Edwin Lutyens and his wife Emily, who was profoundly involved in the Theosophical Movement...
: Cascando, for contralto
Alto
Alto is a musical term, derived from the Latin word altus, meaning "high" in Italian, that has several possible interpretations.When designating instruments, "alto" frequently refers to a member of an instrumental family that has the second highest range, below that of the treble or soprano. Hence,...
, solo violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
and strings
String instrument
A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones...
, 1977
Charles Dodge
Charles Dodge
Charles Dodge may refer to:* Charles Cleveland Dodge, Brigadier General during the American Civil War at the age of twenty-one* Charles Dodge , composer of electronic music...
: Cascando, 1978 (Dodge used electronic sounds
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
for Voice and Music, while retaining a human voice for the part of Opener).
Richard Barrett: I Open and Close, 1988
William Kraft
William Kraft
William Kraft is a composer, conductor, teacher, and percussionist.-Undergrad and Graduate School Years :...
: Suite from Cascando for Flute, Clarinet
Clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
, Violin, Cello
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
and Piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, 1988
Lidia Zielinska: Cascando for actor and double mixed choir, 1983/91
Elaine Barkin: An Experiment in Reading, 1992
Gráinne Mulvey
Gráinne Mulvey
Gráinne Mulvey is an Irish composer.-Biography:She studied with Eric Sweeney at Waterford Regional Technical College, Hormoz Farhat at Trinity College Dublin and Agustín Fernández at Queen's University, Belfast. In 1999 she gained a DPhil in Composition at the University of York under Nicola LeFanu...
: Woburn Struggles On for orchestra, 1996
Pascal Dusapin: Cascando, for flute (+ piccolo
Piccolo
The piccolo is a half-size flute, and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. The piccolo has the same fingerings as its larger sibling, the standard transverse flute, but the sound it produces is an octave higher than written...
), oboe
Oboe
The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois" , "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...
(+ Cor anglais
Cor anglais
The cor anglais , or English horn , is a double-reed woodwind instrument in the oboe family....
), clarinet, bassoon
Bassoon
The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and tenor registers, and occasionally higher. Appearing in its modern form in the 19th century, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band and chamber music literature...
, French horn
Horn (instrument)
The horn is a brass instrument consisting of about of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. A musician who plays the horn is called a horn player ....
, trumpet (+ piccolo trumpet
Piccolo trumpet
The smallest of the trumpet family is the piccolo trumpet, pitched one octave higher than the standard B trumpet. Most piccolo trumpets are built to play in either B or A, using a separate leadpipe for each key. The tubing in the B piccolo trumpet is one-half the length of that in a standard B...
), trombone
Trombone
The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...
, double bass
Double bass
The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
, 1997
John Tilbury
John Tilbury
John Tilbury is a British pianist. He is considered one of the foremost interpreters of Morton Feldman's music, and since 1980 has been a member of the free improvisation group AMM.- Early life and education :...
(piano) / Sebastian Lexer (electronics): Cascando, 2001 http://matchlessrecordings.com/tilbury-beckett
Scott Fields
Scott Fields
Scott Fields , is a guitarist, composer and band leader. He is best known for his attempts to blend music that is composed and music that is written and for his modular pieces...
(cello
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
, tenor saxophone
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
, percussion, electric guitar
Electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
), "Cascando," 2008