Litany for the Whale (1980)

Like the piece I reviewed yesterday, this is a rather incongruous entry in Cage's catalogue. While the incongruity of that piece can be explained as arising due to Cage's love of Satie, I'm not sure what the explanation for this one is. It's a composition for two vocalists, who take turns singing letters of the word "whale" in a call-and-response fashion. Here's an excerpt of the score:

The structure is simple. Vocalist A sings the recitation "W-H-A-L-E". Vocalist B responds with "H-A-W-E", then sings the recitation. Vocalist A responds with "E-A-H-A-E", then sings the recitation. Etc etc for the next twenty-five minutes. Presumably, the order of the letters in the responses was partially determined by chance, though note that each response ends with the letter 'E'. Further, Cage fixes the notes of each letter, like so:

W-D   H-C   A-B   L-G   E-A

Hence, this consists of straightforward monophonic melodies with a simple tonality (from my limited knowledge of music theory, I assume it's in A-minor), to be sung slowly and softly without vibrato. It is extremely peaceful, even religious - indeed, it strongly evokes Gregorian chant, especially with its reverb-heavy production that makes it sound as if it was sung in a church. The monastic overtones are, of course, made explicit by the "litany" of the title.

It would be interesting to know more about Cage's intentions and what compositional methods he used here. It sounds like one of Cage's "transformative" works - as in Apartment House 1776, Cheap Imitation, Hymns and Variations, Quartets I-VIII, etc - in that it sounds like he took some previously existing work, in this case a Gregorian chant, and then altered it somewhat. I think this was composed from scratch, though. What is particularly odd in the context of the rest of his work is how he gives it a tonal centre, on the note A (the letter E). Even in his compositions that used more traditional pitch-sets, this is something that as far as I understand he always worked to avoid. Per Cage's aesthetic, the problem with a tonal centre is that it means that notes are arranged in hierarchy, and according to a theory. In all his work from the early 50s onwards, Cage had endeavoured to create compositions where, essentially, all sounds are equal - where there are no hierarchies, where each sound is its own centre, where "each sound vibrates from itself, not from a theory" (that quote is from Conversing With Cage, pg 90). By all means play an A, but don't play an A as the tonal centre. (The anti-theoretical inclination comes from Zen; the anti-hierarchical inclination from anarchism.)

Of course, none of this has anything to do with the quality of the music, which is extremely high. Just as "litany" suggests religion, so "whale" suggests the ocean, and the music seems evocative of the ocean to me. Notes are sung deliberately, one by one, surrounded by silence; they have an undulating quality, like waves coming into shore. The alternation from the first vocalist to the second and back again conjures the rise and fall of the tides, with the steady repetition of the recitation underlining its cyclical character. To paraphrase one of the favourite slogans of deep ecology, Litany for the Whale may be simple in means, but it is very rich in ends.

I came across a performance of this on carillon, which can be found here (there is a 48 second youtube video; the whole performance is given on a link below). I don't like it so much, and for me it drives home just how important the choice of instrument can be for a composition. Litany for the Whale is beautiful, but a lot of that depends on the qualities of the human voice. Without the voice, without the monastic mood, it becomes a bit boring. It ends up sounding like a child's first attempt at writing music. (The carillon version reminds me quite a lot of Cheap Imitation, another one that I don't find so interesting.)