Ryoanji

Ryoanji was composed by John Cage after his visit to the famous 15th century Zen garden of the same name, situated near Kyoto, Japan. In this garden one will found rocks and raked sand. Cage uses these elements as starting point for his score. The soloist represents the stones, the ensemble represents the raked sand. The score consists of drawings which are translated by the musicians into sounds. The musical pieces play in parallel with footage and stills shot by Frank Scheffer in the Ryoanji garden. The sequence and duration of the film stills was determined by chance, through the filmmaker's use of the I Ching, the ancient Chinese coin tossing oracle also used by John Cage.

From 1982 to 1992 Frank Scheffer worked with John Cage on numerous occasions, which resulted in a unique archive of historical audio-visual material like this. Based on this exceptional archive, including interviews, musical performances, and images of different locations related to Cage's life and work, Scheffer created an intimate portrait of one of the 20th century's most important composers and creative minds at work: the documentary "How to Get Out of the Cage - A Year with John Cage".