Album Notes: An Hour for Piano

TOM JOHNSON

An Hour for Piano

Program Notes to be read while hearing

An Hour for Piano

by Tom Johnson

It is important that you try not to allow the program notes to distract you from concentrating on the music. They are intended to increase your ability to concentrate on the piece, and not to distract from it. If you find that reading the program notes does not increase your ability to concentrate on the music, you should not read further at this time. Perhaps, at some later time, you will find that reading the program notes will increase your ability to concentrate on the music.

Perhaps you are not sure whether the program notes are helping you to concentrate on the music or not. In order to determine whether they are helping you, you may wish to stop at the end of this paragraph, and see how clearly you can recall the music which you heard while you were reading the paragraph. If you can remember the music clearly, then perhaps the program notes are increasing your ability to concentrate on the music. If you can not remember the music clearly, it is probably because reading the program notes has been distracting you from listening to the music. If they have been distracting you, you should not read further at this time. Perhaps, at some later time, you will find that reading the program notes will increase your ability to concentrate on the music.

This paragraph occurs several times in the program notes. However, it will probably seem different each time, because you will be listening to different music each time. You may find it interesting to compare the effect that the paragraph has when it is read in different musical contexts. Perhaps you will find that sometimes this paragraph increases your ability to concentrate on the music and sometimes it does not. Perhaps it will be more helpful to you on first reading than in later readings. Or perhaps the reverse is true.

You may find it interesting to consider that the form of the piece is determined to a large extent by you, since you are free to read or not read the program notes at any time. If you read the program notes very quickly and do not look at them again, you will hear the piece in one way. If you read very slowly, thinking and listening as you read each sentence, you will hear the piece in a very different way. If you alternate between reading and not reading, you will hear the piece in another way. Many other patterns might be followed. Probably no two people would follow the same pattern. You may find it interesting to consider the pattern you have been following up to this point. Perhaps you will want to continue following the same pattern. Or perhaps you will want to change the pattern.

Perhaps you will find that some sections in the program notes increase your ability to concentrate on the music more than other sections. Perhaps you will find that the program notes increase your ability to concentrate on some sections of the music more than on others. Perhaps you will find that certain sections in the program notes are particularly helpful when read in conjunction with certain sections in the music. Perhaps you will find that the program notes increase your ability to concentrate on the music more when the music is rather constant than when it is changing. Or perhaps the reverse is true. Or perhaps the program notes are about equally helpful, regardless of whether the music is rather constant or whether it is changing. Perhaps you will find that certain sections in the program notes are not at all helpful, when read in conjunction with certain sections in the music.

If reading the program notes is not helping you to concentrate on the music, perhaps you should consider the possibility that you are reading too quickly or too slowly. Perhaps if you read the program notes more quickly or more slowly, they will be more helpful to you in increasing your ability to concentrate on the music. You may also wish to consider that the program notes may be more helpful to you if you do not read them continuously, but in sections. Perhaps if you stop reading from time to time, and listen to the music by itself for a while, you will find that the program notes will be more helpful to you when you return to them. You may also want to consider the length of the piece. The program notes are also rather long, but if you read them at a normal pace you will finish them long before you finish hearing the music. But if you read slowly, or if you stop from time to time, you may finish reading them about the same time the music finishes. You may find that the program notes do not increase your ability to concentrate on the music, regardless of how you read them. In that case, you should not read further at this time. Perhaps, at some later time, you will find that reading the program notes will increase your ability to concentrate on the music.

The music you are now hearing is probably very similar to some section you will hear later. You may find that it is more interesting to you now than it will be later. Or perhaps you will find that it will be more interesting later than it is now.

If you have been reading continuously up to this point, perhaps you should put the program notes down and listen to the music by itself for a while. If you have already done this, you may want to do it again. Perhaps you will find that you are able to concentrate on the music better when you are not trying to read at the same time. Perhaps you will find that you are able to concentrate on the music better when you are reading the program notes.

You may find it interesting to consider how many types of music you have already heard, or will hear. You may also find it interesting to consider how many different topics have been or will be discussed in the program notes. Some people might feel that there are only three different types of things in the music and eight or nine different types of things in the program notes. Some people might feel that there are eight or nine different types of things in the music and only a few different types of things in the program notes. Some people might count the different types of things very differently. Some people will probably have no interest in counting the number of different types of things in the music and in the program notes.

From time to time, you should ask yourself whether or not the program notes have been distracting you from the music. It is important that you try not to allow the program notes to distract you from concentrating on the music, as they are intended to increase your ability to concentrate on the music, and not to distract from it. If you find that attempting to read and listen at the same time is too difficult or too restricting, you should not read further at this time. Perhaps, at some later time, you will find that reading the program notes will increase your ability to concentrate on the music. If you find that the program notes are always distracting and never increase your ability to concentrate on the music, perhaps you will want to forget all about the program notes and never read any further. Or perhaps you will want to forget all about both the program notes and the music, and think about something completely unrelated to either. You may find it interesting to notice what sorts of thoughts cross your mind.

If the music you are now hearing is rather constant, you may find it interesting to consider when it will change. If the music you are now hearing seems to be changing, you may find it interesting to consider when it will begin to sound rather constant again. Perhaps you feel that the music is always rather constant. Or perhaps you feel that the music is always changing. Some people will probably have no interest in making such comparisons.

You may find that the music is distracting you from the program notes, and that you are not comprehending all the ideas you are reading. That is not important, since the program notes are intended to increase your ability to concentrate on the music and are not that important in themselves. But if you find that the program notes are distracting you from the music, you should not read further at this time. Perhaps, at some later time, you will find that reading the program notes will increase your ability to concentrate on the music.

The music you are now hearing is probably very similar to some section you will hear later. It may also be very similar to some section you have already heard. You may find that it is more interesting to you now than it will be later or than it was before. Perhaps it is less interesting to you now than it was or will be at some other time.

If the program notes are distracting you from the music, it may be because you are reading too slowly or too quickly. Perhaps, if you read more slowly or more quickly, the program notes will increase your ability to concentrate on the music. You may also wish to consider the length of the piece. You should be able to estimate roughly how long it will take you to finish reading them at your present rate, and about how much music will be left after you finish the program notes. Since you will probably not feel like rereading any of the program notes, you may wish to pace yourself so that you finish reading them about the same time the music finishes. Or perhaps you will want to finish the program notes and then listen to the music by itself. It is important to remember that the form of the piece is determined to a large extent by you.

Perhaps you will find that some sections in the program notes distract you from listening to the music more than other sections. You may find it interesting to consider which sections are the most distracting. Perhaps you will find that some sections in the music interest you more than other sections, regardless of what you may be reading in the program notes. You may find it interesting to consider which sections these are. Perhaps you concentrate on the music more when it is rather constant than when it is changing. Or perhaps the reverse is true. Perhaps you feel that the music is always rather constant. Perhaps you feel that the music is always changing. Some people will probably have no interest in making such comparisons.

It is important to remember that the program notes are intended to increase your ability to concentrate on the music, and not to distract from it. If you find it too difficult or too restricting to read and listen at the same time, you should not read further at this time. Perhaps, at some later time, you will find that reading the program notes will increase your ability to concentrate on the music.

If you are not sure whether the program notes are helping you to concentrate on the music or not, you may wish to stop at the end of this paragraph, and see how clearly you can remember the music which you heard while you were reading the paragraph. Since this same procedure was suggested earlier in the program notes, you may find it interesting to compare your ability to remember the music now with your ability to remember the music then. Perhaps you will be able to remember the music which goes with this paragraph better than you were able to remember the music which went with that earlier paragraph. Perhaps you were able to remember the music better when you read the earlier paragraph.

If you have been reading continuously up to this point, you should consider putting the program notes down and listening to the music by itself for a while. Perhaps you will find that you are better able to concentrate on the music when you are not attempting to read the program notes at the same time. Perhaps you will find that the program notes were increasing your ability to concentrate on the music, and that you will not be able to concentrate on the music as well when you are not reading the program notes. If you are able to concentrate on the music better when you are not reading the program notes, you should not read further at this time. Perhaps, at some later time, you will find that reading the program notes will increase your ability to concentrate on the music. If you find that the program notes are always distracting, you may not want to read the remaining paragraphs at all.

It is important to remember that the form of the piece is determined to a large extent by you, since you are free to read or not read the program notes at any time. If you have been alternating between reading and not reading, you have been hearing the piece in one way. If you have been reading continuously up to this point, you have been hearing the piece in another way. If you are now reading more quickly or more slowly than when you began, that too would affect the way you have been hearing the piece. Perhaps you will want to continue reading the program notes in the same way. Or perhaps you will want to change the pattern.

The following paragraph has already occurred in the program notes three times. Perhaps the idea of reading it a fourth time will not appeal to you. If so, you may want to read it very quickly this time. Or perhaps you will want to skip it entirely. But if the idea of reading it a fourth time does not seem too difficult or too restricting, you may want to read it again in much the same way you read it before. Perhaps, since you are now very familiar with it, you will find that it does not distract you from the music as much as it did before. Or perhaps you will find that it is more distracting than before. You may also find that it is more difficult to comprehend and relate to than it was when you read it before.

Now that you are approaching the end of the program notes, you may want to consider the length of the piece. You should be able to estimate roughly how long it will take you to finish reading the program notes at your present rate, and about how much music will be left after you finish reading them. Since you are free to read or not read the program notes at any time, the form of the piece is determined to a large extent by you. Perhaps you will want to stop reading at this point, and return to the remaining paragraphs when you think the piece is about to finish. Perhaps you will want to continue reading at your present rate. Or perhaps you will want to read the remaining paragraphs more slowly or more quickly. How you experience the last part of the piece will be determined partly by the pattern you choose for reading the last part of the program notes.

The music you are hearing now is probably very similar to some section you heard earlier. You may find that it is more interesting to you now than it was before. Or perhaps it was more interesting to you then than it is now.

In order to determine whether the program notes have been increasing your ability to concentrate on the music, you may find it interesting to see how clearly you can remember all the music you have heard up to this point, and how clearly you can remember all the program notes you have read up to this point. If you can remember the music more clearly than you can remember the program notes, the program notes have probably been helping you to concentrate on the music. If you can remember what you have read more clearly than you can remember what you have heard, the program notes have probably been distracting you from the music, and you should not read further at this time. Perhaps, at some later time, you will find that reading the program notes will increase your ability to concentrate on the music.

When you finish reading the program notes, you may wish to consider how much of the piece remains to be played, and how you will want to listen to the music once you have finished the program notes. If the program notes have increased your ability to concentrate on the music you may want to reread parts of them. Perhaps, if you do reread parts of them, they will continue to increase your ability to concentrate on the music. Probably you will not feel like rereading the program notes, and will want to put them down and listen to the music by itself. Perhaps you will find that you will be able to concentrate on the music better after you have finished reading the program notes. Or perhaps you will find that you will continue to think about the program notes, even though you have finished reading them. Or perhaps you will want to think about something completely unrelated to either the music or the program notes. You may find it interesting to notice what sorts of thoughts cross your mind.

-- Tom Johnson (1974)

An Hour of Tom Johnson

by Kenneth Goldsmith

It’s an old story, but it can’t hurt to tell it again: In the midst of an art opening at a Paris gallery in 1902, “furniture music” was born. Erik Satie and his cronies, after begging everyone in the gallery to ignore them, broke out into what they called Furniture Music--that is, background music--music as wallpaper, music to be purposely not listened to. The patrons of the gallery, thrilled to see musicians performing in their midst, ceased talking and politely watched, despite Satie's frantic efforts to get them to pay no attention.

With this one gesture, Satie opened the question of whether music should be listened to or not; after all, up until the 20th century, it never crossed anyone’s mind that music should be not be listened to. Satie’s idea, however, didn’t really catch on. Throughout a century of experimentation and boundary-pushing in music, the focus always tended to be on the object itself, not the negative space that might be articulating that object; Schoenberg had some great ideas, but not listening to his music was not one of them. It wasn’t until the 1960s that we saw a return to Satie’s ideas embodied in the work of John Cage. And via Cage’s influence, generations upon generations of composers toyed with the idea that the proper way of listening to their compositions was not to listen at all.

A few years ago, I fell in love with the music of Tom Johnson. Perhaps I should rephrase this: I initially fell in love with Johnson’s concepts and only later, with his music. I suppose it was first through Bang on a Can’s marvelous rendition of "Failing: A Very Difficult Piece for a String Bass," whereby a solo bass player is given such complicated playing instructions that failure is inevitable and, as such, becomes a goal in the piece. Strange, I thought, I never considered failing to be a goal of anything. His piano works, on the other hand, are mathematically based and, as such, are built precisely not to fail. The Chord Catalogue and Music for 88 (both on XI Records) are the ultimate in rational music. The Chord Catalogue is a demonstration of how one octave can be divided into 8178 chords. To call it microtonal would be an understatement: While splitting chords into quarter or even eighth tones are not that unusual, Johnson's accomplishment is mind boggling. Music for 88 is simply Johnson citing mathematical theorems and then demonstrating them on the piano. It’s a preposterous idea and it’s dry as dust to boot. And in an oblique way, it’s quite beautiful--that is, if you take it on its own terms. But, in the Johnsonian aesthetic, that’s the point: there is no way to take his music but on its own terms. Trying to apply conventional thinking to his projects is uselss.

As I listen to Tom Johnson’s An Hour for Piano, I find myself underwhelmed. It’s certainly pleasant enough. It tinkles away in a Satie-esque manner, melodically meandering around the middle and upper registers of the piano. There are no rough edges, no atonality, no crescendos and no lulls. It’s a pleasant stasis, but couldn’t be further from the intellectual didactic rigors of minimalism. And on top of it all, it’s not a particularly original work. In fact, it reminds me of a number of pieces that sound very similar to it: John Cage’s “In A Landscape” and Alvin Curran’s “For Cornelius” immediately spring to mind. But that’s not really the point.

And then there’s the problem of what to do with it: I might consider putting it on as background music for a sophisticated dinner party that I was throwing, but no--it’s not romantic or sexy enough: I’d probably reach for my Portishead or Serge Gainsbourg instead. Maybe it would be good for a Sunday morning: nestling up with a good cup of coffee and a Sunday paper. No, that wouldn’t work either: I know that someone in my household would tell me to take it off because it never really goes anywhere; its off-kilter repetitions would certainly drive many listeners up the wall. Then there’s Brian Eno’s idea: he invented ambient music to simply tint the air in a room. If ambient music is what I want, then I might as well put on any number of the Brian Eno records that I own. After all, he’s made a science of the stuff and it strikes me that it’d be more effective than an hour of piano repeating itself time and again. But that’s not really the point either.

Cutting to the chase: An Hour for Piano might be the first ever musical piece which is intended to be read. If you don’t read Johnson’s program notes, you’re missing half the experience. And if you only listen to the record, you’re missing the other half. In fact, this piece really isn’t about the music at all. Instead, it’s a philosophical exercise which calls into question our relationship to music as a listener. There are so many variables given in the text that, similar to reading Roland Barthes’ S/Z for the first time, we may never be able to have what we used to consider a “normal” relationship to music. Suddenly we realize that music is not an island unto itself but is informed by the myriad of circumstances surrounding it. And it is through these circumstances--what I referred to earlier as the negative space surrounding a work of art--that the work of art begins to take its shape. It’s the complex and multitudinous interactions between the two which make for one of the richest learning--and listening--experiences you might ever have.

-- Kenneth Goldsmith (April 2000)

Kenneth Goldsmith is a poet living in New York City. He spins odd discs on

WFMU and scribbles about experimental music for New York Press.

Tom Johnson, born in Colorado in 1939, received B.A. and M.Mus. degrees from Yale University and also studied composition privately with Morton Feldman. He is considered a minimalist, since he works with simple forms, limited scales, and generally reduced materials, but he proceeds in a more logical way than most minimalists, often using formulas, permutations, and predictable sequences.

Johnson is well known for his operas: The Four Note Opera (1972) continues to be presented in many countries. Riemannoper has been staged 20 times since its premiere in Bremen in 1988. The latest, Trigonometry: was premiered in Hamburg in November 1997. Non-operatic works include the Rational Melodies, Music for 88, and the often-played Failing: a very difficult piece for solo string bass. A theoretical book devoted to Self-Similar Melodies was published in 1996 by Editions 75, where all of his scores are also available.

His largest composition is the Bonhoeffer Oratorium, a two-hour work in German for orchestra, chorus and soloists, with text by the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The oratorio was premiered in Maastricht in September 1996 and received its German premiere in Berlin in November 1998.

After 15 years in New York, he moved to Paris, where he has lived since 1983. His wife is the Spanish artist Esther Ferrer.

Frederic Rzewski (born Westfield, Massachusetts, 1938) studied with Randall Thompson and Walter Piston at Harvard University, and with Roger Sessions and Milton Babbitt at Princeton University. Two years in Italy (1960-62) brought him into Luigi Dallapiccola’s orbit, and he became well known in Europe as a masterful performer of works by Boulez, Stockhausen, Cage, Kagel, Feldman, and others. In Rome in 1966 he cofounded Musica Elettronica Viva with Alvin Curran and Richard Teitelbaum. MEV quickly became known for its pioneering work in live electronics and improvisation. Bringing together both classical and jazz avant-gardists, MEV developed an esthetic of music as a spontaneous collective process. During the 1970s Rzewski experimented further with forms in which style and language are treated as structural elements. The best-known work of this period is The People United Will Never Be Defeated!, a 50-minute set of piano variations. A number of pieces for larger ensembles written between 1979 and 1981 show a return to experimental and graphic notation, while much of the work of the 1980s explored new ways of using twelve-tone technique. Since 1977, he has been Professor of Composition at the Conservatoire Royal de Musique in Liège, Belgium.

Publishers Note: Frederic Rzewski’s performance of An Hour for Piano is accomplished in 54 minutes, although there is an edition of the score which gives exact timings every few pages, so that a performer can finish in exactly 60 minutes. The last time Tom Johnson heard a performance, in Berlin, Deborah Richards played it in exactly one hour.

This 54 minute realization was perfect for Lovely Music’s 1979 vinyl release, because we wanted to keep the project to a single LP. Today, in CD times, we find that this 1974 performance has a sense of history and a particular sonority that cannot be replaced.

John Sadler engineered the master tape in a recording session at Town Hall in New York on March 7th, 1974.

Sonic Solutions Mastering by Foothill Digital Productions, New York.

Photo of Tom Johnson by Nat Tileston.
Photo of Frederic Rzewski by John David Kalodner.
Original Design: Patrick Vitacco
Art Direction and Design: Nancy Foote, By Design

An Hour for Piano is published by the Two-Eighteen Press (BMI)
Copyright c 1970? by Tom Johnson (BMI)
© P 1979, 2000 Lovely Music, Ltd.

Printed in USA.

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