Sonata for YouTube
12 February 2015‘Sonata for YouTube takes as its starting place John Cage’s Imaginary Landscapes IV for 12 radios. While Cage’s piece is beautiful, one day it will be impossible to perform as radio frequencies are turned off. So I decided to use the closest thing we have to browsing the airwaves, browsing YouTube pages.
With the help of a website called random youtube generator, we downloaded 90 totally random youtube videos. The piece is very specific about how they are played, but what video we get and what the effect will be is indeterminate.
During this piece there will be moments of silence. In the spirit of Cage I urge you to approach these silences not with reverence but with curiosity, and a sense of humour.’
—Llywelyn ap Myrddin, composer of Sonata for YouTube.
The piece was performed by members of the ensemble Jetsam; Jo Wills and Natasha Zielazinski, percussionist Guy Wood and conducted by Timothy Burke.
With the help of a website called random youtube generator, we downloaded 90 totally random youtube videos. The piece is very specific about how they are played, but what video we get and what the effect will be is indeterminate.
During this piece there will be moments of silence. In the spirit of Cage I urge you to approach these silences not with reverence but with curiosity, and a sense of humour.’
—Llywelyn ap Myrddin, composer of Sonata for YouTube.
The piece was performed by members of the ensemble Jetsam; Jo Wills and Natasha Zielazinski, percussionist Guy Wood and conducted by Timothy Burke.