In a Landscape by John Cage - harp and cello

Strange Interlude: Lily Press, harp & Simon Linn-Gerstein, cello

John Cage's “In a Landscape” was originally performed with choreography by Cage's partner Merce Cunningham. Interestingly, Cage and Cunningham chose to work completely independently on composing and choreographing the piece - other than agreeing on a length for the piece neither knew what the other was creating. In creating this video, we similarly decided to edit the video footage together without listening to the music, simply creating a final cut that was approximately the length of a complete performance of the piece. We also opted to keep the original nature sounds we captured with the video, and only later added the music.

We gathered the footage for this video in an almost spur-of-the-moment decision. After a performance in Seattle, we were driving back to Los Angeles via the Oregon coast and the redwood forests of Northern California - we were struck by the scale and stillness of the wild nature along the coast. We decided to take this footage to pair with our own arrangement of “In a Landscape” for harp and cello. We hope that the resulting video reflects the meditative quality of Cage's work as well as the magnificent landscapes of the West Coast. Happy Listening!

https://LilyPressHarpist.com
https://SimonTheCellist.com

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