Ryoanji (Cage)

Listening Guide

Ryoanji is based on a series of drawings of Cage, that are constructed by tracing the outlines of the 15 stones (arranged in a manner conducive to meditation, just like the linear patterns of the raked bed of pebbles) from the titular stone garden in Kyoto, Japan, which Cage visited in 1962 during a concert tour. In each of the series of drawings known as Where R=Ryoanji, Cage traced each stone by a certain number of times determined by chance using the I-Ching (Book of Changes), the ancient Chinese divination text comprising hexagrams (2 groups of 3 lines that are either broken or continuous, representing yin and yang, or the masculine and feminine forces of the cosmos; yin and yang are determined e.g. by the combination of head and tails resulting from the throwing of 3 coins). The drawings were then used to produce the score of Ryoanji (in different versions for variable instruments), in which the arch of the stones are audible as glissandi (each with defined starting and ending pitches; in the voice, flute, oboe, trombone, and double bass in the 2011 recording from Hat Hut Records). The sparsely textured Ryoanji might be thought of as a framework within which the listener is led to meditate, aided by the slow passage of time, marked by percussion strikes on gongs, at the beginning of the piece. Later, the listener is led to self-reflection through a landscape of scattered sound objects that invite contemplation without overt expression, which is dissipated by Cage’s chance procedure. About one-third of the way through, the growling double bass enters, followed by the wordless utterance of the voice. A small build up occurs midway through the piece. The piece ends as it started, with gongs struck at widely spaced intervals, conscious thought dissipating.