380 Steps: A Performance of John Cage's "STEPS, A Composition for a Painting"
Concieved and Performed by Arnold Dreyblatt
Produced by Ray Kass
Additional Photography by Sabine Groschup
Associate Producers: Harriett Watts & Georg Weckworth
Commissioned by The John Cage Organ Foundation Halberstadt
In Collaboration with The John Cage Trust
Edition Peters Group
The Mountain Lake Workshop
TONSPUR Kunstverein Wien
A Performance of „John Cage’s STEPS, A Composition for Painting“. The remnants of the performance remained as an installation in an exhibition.
Presented at the #JohnCageSTEPS: International Workshops and Performances at John-Cage-Orgel-Stiftung Halberstadt on October 10, 2017.
The performance involved a circular reading/performance of selected texts from „An Introductory Essay to the Doctrine of Sounds containing some proposals for the Improvement of Acousticks as it was presented to the Society of Dublin, November 12, 1683“ by Archbishop Narcissus Marsh. The original text is found in the chain library founded by Marsh in Dublin and it contains the earliest mention of the word „microphone“ in the english language.
Selected phrases from the original documents have been printed on 380 index cards which are placed on 10 music stands arranged in a circle on white paper rolls. One to three words are printed on each card which are then „shuffled“ by rearranging the order, so that chance occurances and meanings play an important role. As each text is read, it is dropped to the ground.
At the end of each circular movement, the reader's feet pass through an ink bay, so that the movement is the „STEPS“ is recorded on the paper below.
At the end of the performance, Ray Kass presented Dreyblatt with a copy of the Peters score of „STEPS“.
