Cage and Stockhausen meet in a scenic concert in the historic hall of Hamburg Central Station. In the extensive installation We Make Years Out of Hours by Lithuanian artist Lina Lapelytė, the Zafraan Ensemble – as a satellite of the musical theatre Music of Changes – works with singers from the opera ensemble to weave two of the composers’ works together: Cage’s Hymns and Variations (1979) uses the random thinning of religious hymns to illustrate the path «from something to nothing and back again,» while Stockhausen’s instrumental piece Stop (1965) generates an intense, physical experience of presence and energy from abruptly interrupted sound events. Based on these pieces, the installation itself becomes a score. Perception moves to the centre, the boundaries of listening are shifted – for both composers, the most important exercise for the salvation of humanity.

Music of Many

Contemporary Art National Gallery

Together with the Berlin-based Zafraan Ensemble, the musically playful and versatile theatre artist Thom Luz and Titus Engel, conductor-in-residence at Deutsche Oper Berlin, have created an evening of musical theatre in which John Cage’s work can be experienced in its entirety: from the surprisingly captivating percussion pieces of his early years, through the more contemplative thinning and dissolution harmonies of his middle period, to the sound meditations of his late works, shaped entirely by chance and the initiative of his own interpretation. More than a century after his birth, Cage’s work still contains one of the most radical musical answers to the most pressing question facing our society: How can we create a structure in which the most diverse sounds can coexist without one sound dominating, controlling, suppressing, reinterpreting or even obliterating another? In a performance space somewhere between a concert hall and a musical gymnasium, Cage’s compositions and concepts are performed and brought to life: The audience experiences how Cage’s sonic world order unfolds across the stage and transforms the space. What begins like a classical concert evening reveals itself as a chance-orchestrated founding assembly of a future society that functions entirely according to musical principles: Freedom is the space between five staves, harmony is a form of order that also encompasses incompatibility. The inclusion of chance as a structuring element becomes a comprehensible and captivating encounter for the audience with the possibilities of non-deterministic decision-making: Each performance is a world premiere; no two performances are exactly alike. Thus, a novel portrait of the composer emerges – and a call to action for us, the people of the present: Engage with this resonance and forget the idea of humanity at the centre of power and meaning in creation.

Martin Smith

Events

Upcoming events

5 - 6 Dec, 2026

Music of Many · Deutsche Oper Berlin

5 - 13 Mar, 2027

Music of Changes · Deutsche Oper Berlin

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