The Put On of the Century, or the Cage Centenary

[Mirror Image]

Wow, Asia singled me out? WTF? This is hilarious.

[Mirror Image]

Maybe I should write an article about how Asia's music will be completely irrelevant to future generations. That said, I do actually like some of Asia's compositions. I heard his Symphony No. 3 about a week or so ago. Not bad!

[Mirror Image]

Wow, MI--who knew? You're the primary enemy of Democracy!

Yeah, I wasn't expecting this. I wonder if Asia even understands the concept of a democracy? Anybody?

[Mirror Image]

"perverted, satanic bruta fulmina"

I am sooooo jealous now. No one's ever said that kind of thing about me.

What about me? I'm perverted and satanic. I have bruta fulmina, especially after eating habanero salsa.

I just don't understand how Mirror gets all the attention.

( )

Beats the hell out of me, some guy. I'm as confused about all of this as you are. But I love being a "perverted, satanic bruta fulmina." Whatever this means.

[Mirror Image]

By the way, I'd at least like a legitimate link to this blog post, otherwise, who do I believe?

[Cato]

Beats the hell out of me, some guy. I'm as confused about all of this as you are. But I love being a "perverted, satanic bruta fulmina." Whatever this means.

"Brutus" gives us the word "brute," from the original Latin meaning of "dull."

"Bruta fulmina" means therefore "dumb lightning strikes," i.e. throwing lightning bolts around and not really aiming at anything specific.

YOU are now officially a GMG Hero!     Assuming that The 6 is not "pranking" everyone! 

Well, who cares?   Let's make Mirror Image a hero anyway!   0:)

Should we remind Daniel Asia of Stravinsky compositions e.g. Threni and Requiem Canticles and the Variations In Memoriam Aldous Huxley ?

[Mirror Image]

"Brutus" gives us the word "brute," from the original Latin meaning of "dull."

"Bruta fulmina" means therefore "dumb lightning strikes," i.e. throwing lightning bolts around and not really aiming at anything specific.

YOU are now officially a GMG Hero!     Assuming that The 6 is not "pranking" everyone! 

Well, who cares?   Let's make Mirror Image a hero anyway!   0:)

Should we remind Daniel Asia of Stravinsky compositions e.g. Threni and Requiem Canticles and the Variations In Memoriam Aldous Huxley ?

I'll take Asia's insults as a compliment then, especially considering their source! Thanks for clearing that up, Cato. I'll defend Cage and his ideals until I'm blue in the face. The whole point of my argument is simple: Cage is a pioneer and Asia can't accept it.

[ibanezmonster]

It is a prank. Just read the link carefully.

[Mirror Image]

Nice prank! I feel for it.

[Cato]

Nice prank! I feel for it.

What is sad is that Asia's style somewhat fits the software for the Complaint Letter!   

As mentioned, we will not revoke Mirror Image's Hero Status!  0:)

[Mirror Image]

What is sad is that Asia's style somewhat fits the software for the Complaint Letter!   

As mentioned, we will not revoke Mirror Image's Hero Status!  0:)

Ha! I should have read the article more carefully because one of the most important ingredients was missing from that article: Cage.

[Florestan]

Assuming that The 6 is not "pranking" everyone! 

He just did, with great success!  Kudos to him! 

Seriously, guys, it was obvious from the first two sentences of the initial "quotation" that something is wrong. As for the MI ad hominem it should have raised more than one suspicion right off the start, yet not the slightest was expressed. How on earth could anyone of you take those fabrications for real is beyond me. 

Is it perhaps because  your dislike of Asia blinds you about obvious facts just like his dislike of Cage does the same for him? 

[Karl Henning]

With all the genuine complaints against Asia's initial rant, I think the protesters diffuse some of their own cause with the "Whoa, who nominated Stravinsky and Schoenberg The Most Important Composers of the Century?" gambit. The preeminence and influence of these two, while open to discussion and expansion, do not really suffer the question.

[Cato]

With all the genuine complaints against Asia's initial rant, I think the protesters diffuse some of their own cause with the "Whoa, who nominated Stravinsky and Schoenberg The Most Important Composers of the Century?" gambit. The preeminence and influence of these two, while open to discussion and expansion, do not really suffer the question.

I noticed that also, and thought it was a very weak counter-argument. 

Better to stick with evidence: e.g. does Mr. Asia offer a universe of sound different from those of other composers, or does it sound like X, Y, and Z?  Has he e.g. invented a new instrument, or used classic ideas in a unique way, or...?

Whether he is a traditionalist or not, is the result compelling or interesting in any way?

[Mirror Image]

In this day and age, Asia could have very well written a counter argument to my own. It is very possible that Asia could have read this whole thread. How are we to know that he has or hasn't? You can never be too careful on the Internet. Some strange things happen for sure.

[PaulR]

In this day and age, Asia could have very well written a counter argument to my own. It is very possible that Asia could have read this whole thread. How are we to know that he has or hasn't? You can never be too careful on the Internet. Some strange things happen for sure.

Maybe James is Daniel Asia in disguise.

[Mirror Image]

Maybe James is Daniel Asia in disguise.

Perhaps.

[Karl Henning]

Maybe James is Daniel Asia in disguise.

Pfffff

[snyprrr]

should have raised more than one suspicion right off the start, yet not the slightest was expressed. How on earth could anyone of you take those fabrications for real is beyond me. 

These are the same people lambasting me, waaaah!!!!

[jochanaan]

"You have heard it said" that Cage does not create masterpieces.  But I'm not sure Cage was even interested in creating masterpieces.  The greatness of 4'33" is not in how complex or dramatic or moving it is in itself, but in how it gets the audience to listen in a different way than it would to (for example) Beethoven or even John Adams.  It is not, nor was ever intended to be, "a masterpiece;" rather, like the few other Cage pieces I've actually heard, it is something for the moment.

And that is a valid approach to music, the most evanescent of the fine arts (with drama).  It's very like the art of improvisation: not to create music that will "stand the test of time," but to create a set of conditions to enable musicians to play the right notes in the right way for the moment.  As a local Denver poet asks, "What shall we do with this moment we are in?"

I might add that this is the approach that conductor Sergiu Celibidache took.  He never took his orchestras into a recording studio; his entire career was built on live performances, where it is not "posterity" or "history" that judges a performance, but rather a particular group of people in a particular section of space-time. -- Actually, this is the approach every great musician takes, even literalists like Lorin Maazel or Pierre Boulez.  No matter how "great" the written music is or how stringent the rehearsals have been, every performance is only the best it can be for the moment the players, singers and audience are in.

John Cage, more than almost any other composer, "composed" his "music" not for "history and posterity," but rather to allow singular moments of greatness, different every time musicians and an audience come together.  That is his legacy.  And that is why he will be remembered, if he is remembered--and I for one hope he will be remembered.