Rūta Vitkauskaitė

Programme Note

The piece was written for an event at King’s Place, London, celebrating composer John Cage, and produced by ARCO Collective, led by Neil Luck. The score is a very light contribution to the celebration of the composer. It is taking into account his name – CAGE, which in itself contains four notes C, A, G, and E. On string instruments, these can be open strings (C, G and A on Viola and Cello, and G, A, E on violin). The idea is exploring simplicity of the piece – playing static notes in their most ‘natural’ form, no vibrato, no dynamics, no emotional elements, performers are challenged to keep it going for as long as possible, as see whether they manage to keep the ‘stillness’ of just static notes, or if piece inevitably and involuntarily evolves into something more of a composition.