Complete Works for Flute, Vol. 2

John Cage's innovative work and unorthodox ideas profoundly affected Western music during the latter half of the 20th century, and this second of two volumes (volume 1 can be heard on Naxos 8559773) concludes Katrin Zenz's survey of his complete works for flute. The earlier chromatic compositions include an astonishing variety of playing techniques and a bewildering rhythmic complexity, while the elements of chance in the later works result in music that is always undergoing kaleidoscopic processes at once arbitrary and intensely focused in form and expression. The beauty and purpose of Cage's music lies in an intimacy and spirituality that he said should "sober and quiet the mind thus rendering it susceptible to divine influences."