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John Cage, Ryoanji (1983-85)

Ryoanji is a rock garden in Kyoto, Japan, in which large beautiful boulders are surrounded by carefully raked fields of sand. The sparse, persistant pulsing of the percussion part designs a musical and temporal texture to represent the surrounding raked sand. Songful, introspective saxophone lines carve out the large boulders. Eight sections of piece, each lasting two mintues, follow eight gardens in Ryoanji. Each garden will be played at a different location in the hall.