Is it?

John Cage (E)

Is it? is based on a short text in "Composition as Progress/III. Communication" out of the book "Silence" by John Cage. This text that Cage lectured in its readings comprises 56 short questions whose order is calculated and amounted through chance operations. I have deliberately left this text unchanged in its sequence and gave each question a period of 11 seconds. The ritual sequence of these simple questions is what the singer attempts to gradually free herself from within the strict music. These questions of Cage have an uncanny power. Cage gives no answers, yet it presses further, like in a ritual. The questions want to know what we actually hear. Therefore, in my characteristic way, the music is partly supporting the questions and partly seeking an answer. (Thomas Kessler)