Educational Media Reviews Online

"Fourteen" is a John Cage composition from 1990, the middle of his so-called number period, when titles reflected the size of the ensembles for which Cage created pieces. In the midst of this video, which incorporates a fragmented, partial performance of "Fourteen" by the Amsterdam-based Ives Ensemble, the score is shown and some of its notations are explained. Each performer is given a note to play for a given length of time. Entry and exit spans are written in minutes and seconds "from zero to twenty" for this 20-minute piece, and players keep time with stopwatches or refer to an overhead digital clock. Piano, winds, strings, and percussion are heard being tuned, warming up and performing, and to John Cage all these sounds would have been equally valuable. For the purposes of this video, the noises, though they sometimes overwhelm speaking voices (often Cage himself, expounding upon his love of Joyce, his dislike of harmony, his belief in Zen Buddhism, his philosophy of music) are important because of this equality Cage afforded them. They serve also to set the actual performance of Cage's composition apart and highlight its organization and relative mellowness.

The promotional material for this video, including the jacket blurb, explains that the lighting and camera "score" for the performance of "Fourteen" was designed following Cage's principles of chance operations (begun by using the Chinese I Ching, but eventually computerized). The designer was evidently Andrew Culver, but although he is seen and heard explaining his methods, he is not named on screen or in the film's credits. Likewise, Merce Cunningham is seen on screen, both discussing Cage and working with dancers (not originally part of "Fourteen") but he is not identified, although his dance company is given thanks in the credits (along with several other people and entities, including "I Ching," "available studio" and "flashlight").

The film was made in 1995 with support from the Dutch Cultural Broadcasting Promotion Fund, and it works very well as an entertaining hour with and about John Cage, his artistic philosophy and his later music. It would make a small educational impact on people who are already somewhat familiar with Cage and his legacy, but its usefulness in an academic collection seems limited because of its paucity of documentation. Thus, if the liner notes became separated from the video, the identity of Andrew Culver would be known only to people who have seen his image elsewhere. No credits appear for individual scenes showing Cage himself. Recommended as a supplementary item to academic collections that need more Cage videos and already own Cage/Cunningham (1991, distributed by Kultur) or the 1990 Vintage Productions video I Have Nothing to Say And I Am Saying It, part of the television series "American Masters."