In a Landscape (1948)

"If something is boring after two minutes,” said John Cage, “try it for four. If still boring, then eight. Then sixteen. Then thirty-two. Eventually one discovers that it is not boring at all." We have only eight minutes, however, to realise that, in spite of it plain textures and its motivic repetitions, In a Landscape is actually a very interesting piece. Written for harp or piano in 1948, it is a reaction to the composers’s discovery of Erik Satie and his method of construction - at least as Cage perceived it - according to time lengths rather than harmonic progression. But while it is a tribute to the composer of Vexations and, in consequence, an early anticipation of minimalism, it is so sensitive in its economy and so poetic in line as to exclude anything even remotely vexatious.