"To That Predestined Dancing Place" of @DavidRosenboom performed by the New Percussion Quartet w/John Cage in March 1968.
Video documentation comes from the film "Who's Afraid of the Avante Garde?" produced by the Public Broadcast Laboratory and aired by the National Educational Television and Radio Center on April 21st, 1968. The performance took part during the 2nd Festival of the Fine Arts at SUNY Buffalo.
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The work for percussion quartet was completed in May 1967, while still in Urbana; performance of the 1st version of the piece by the University of Illinois Percussion Ensemble was directed by W. Youhass.
The score’s legend includes a map of signs indicating instruments, shifts, and lengths of parts of the composition. Notably, the infinity sign that enchanted Rosenboom in the late 1960s, played in the notation. A twisted circle represented a symbolic relationship between a group of performers who were to interact and ‘dance’ between the instruments having "opposite" timbral characteristics, (such as resonant and non-resonant), arranged in the figure. The created sounds were spinning around the setup following the mapping.
The infinity model allowed us to indicate differentiation spaces within the score and spaces where differentiation between opposites became minimal. The forces move from opposites toward the center and merge - turning invisible. While moving back to sides - the sense of differentiation increased, and opposites emerged again. Thus, the score embodied the following idea: polarization of forces, the emergence of opposites, defines the world for us, and makes the world easier for us to navigate - as guided by dichotomies.
In the fall of 1967, Rosenboom joined the Center for Creative and Performing Arts at the University of Buffalo, accepting the proposal of its director Lukas Foss to become a Creative Associate. His piece was performed 3 times for the Evenings for New Music Series by the New Percussion Quartet - J. Williams, E. Burnham. L. Harbold and J. Rowland conducted M. Strauss.
First, in Baird Recital Hall at Buffalo (Jan. 31, 1968). Then as a part of the concert at Syracuse University, in Regent Theater (Feb. 14, 1968). The final performance was the 2nd version of the piece - more elaborate (3 movements), augmented by theatrical elements. It premiered on March 3, 1968, at the 2nd Festival of the Arts (Albert-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo), with John Cage as a guest performer with a toy machine gun.
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