John Cage (1912-92)

[San Antone]

Article in The New York Times

Visual Portents of a Silent Bolt of Thunder
MoMA's 'There Will Never Be Silence,' About John Cage

Like much of Cage's work, the show is suffused by a meditative wit that wears its transcendent ambitions lightly. Works that investigate chance and indeterminacy through found objects, monochrome canvases and the playful use of language invite the visitor to explore new ways of engaging not only with the art on the walls, but with the outside world, too.

"It offers the opportunity to let us be taken into something else," said David Platzker, the show's curator. "It's the possibility of passing through boredom into fascination."

[7/4]

enough about the four feet and thirty three inches already!

[torut]

John Cage Trust provides 4'33" App for iPhone.
A performance of 4'33" can be recorded, and the recordings created all over the world can be played.



This is very interesting (for me). Ambient sound (private or public) at different places in the world can be heard. Break between movements creates a feel of structure. Sometimes it is as if hearing a recording of Luc Ferrari.

[petrarch]

Wonderful book on John Cage. It is a great complement to James Pritchett's.

[asin]0143123475[/asin]

[Karl Henning]

Isn't that cute? James feels validated now.

Guess he needed that . . . .

[snyprrr]

BBC Interview: Elliott Carter on John Cage. (July 2000)

John Tusa: Well, I wonder in this whole question of what is an American composer, how you relate to the John Cage type of music?

Elliott Carter: Well, there are two things. I'm not sure that John Cage would be considered an American composer, after all the Dadaism business was something that was started in Zurich during the First World War with Tristan Tzara and others, and we were actually quite good friends with Marcel Duchamps, also one of the people that supported this kind of thing. Now, what I feel about this west coast thing is this: my particular period of development and interest in music was believing that the musical situation was a static thing that existed. There was a symphony orchestra, there was an opera house, there was a string quartet and these things were given and I was writing pieces for these pieces. I was hoping to take... believing actually that by writing something new and lively we could make the opera house have something that was vivid in a new way and similarly with a symphony orchestra, a string quartet or whatever, pianist. This was my thought and this is what I've always lived in. Now I understand that there are people that feel that the opera house ought to be knocked out and destroyed. That it's an old-fashioned thing that really has no meaning and be the same thing for each of the things that I've mentioned. I can understand that they're maddening in a certain sense but I don't believe I want to do it.

JT: But the Cage type of music of what we now say, I suppose, deconstructing of the musical experience, deconstructing the conventional concert-hall experience.

EC: Well, this is all part of what I was saying. He was deconstructing not merely the concert situation but actually the way music is produced, and I think it's very entertaining and sometimes quite... it's amusing and it has an overtone of Zen Buddhism which fascinates certain people. In my opinion all that kind of thing is again going back to this awful domination of a certain group of people over other people, but in any case this is why don't they do it; it's a bore but it's all right to do it.

JT: So its just one of those moments of diversion .

EC: It is a diversion. It's fun, but I don't think it can amount to very much. It has an overtone of seriousness because of its relation to each thing and the rest of it, it's not part of our society and we don't... Chinese society is a different kind of thing and to import it in this ridiculous way I find embarrassing.

JT: Well, I think if you want contemplation there are plenty of disciplined
ways of contemplation available within the broad Christian or Jewish tradition so...

First thing I see is James Posting in the Cage Thread. Surely, nothing but trouble- and- lo- haha- touche sir!!

It's too easy James, it's too easy!

Ugh, why did you even have to bring up the Thread- now I'm thinking about it,... bummer. I know, some of these magic mushrooms will make the Cage pain go away!

Oh, you know, this morning I could just sit here for hours and dig a really deep hole for myself... watch me TRRRRRRY to be the bigger person.....maybe just knowing his legacy is moot is enough? Show me one Composer who's just throwing notes around and I can imagine, that in this world climate (no pun) no one's going to listen to Kindergarten Games Music... maybe it worked for Cage in the '60s, but we have REAL problems now that liberating the notes just isn't going to help. Maybe Cage should be held as an accomplice in the dumbing down of the general populace?

Grrr, James- now you're on my shit list for trying to ruin my day, haha!!

Maybe you're USING Cage for your own nefarious ends??? hmmmm

aaaaaahhhhhhhhhh... now it's in my head- WHAT HAVE YOU DONE JAMES???

Isn't that cute? James feels validated now.

Guess he needed that . . . .

me too!!!!! oy vey

[petrarch]

Isn't that cute? James feels validated now.

Guess he needed that . . . .

It only goes to show that people of stature like Carter can still misunderstand Cage and, tangentially, Zen Buddhism. Luckily, it doesn't detract anything at all from the music (Carter's and Cage's) and everybody can continue to be happy.

[petrarch]

All of the heavyweights seem to have "misunderstood"

LOL.

[petrarch]

(...) almost about every major composer or artist that matters (...)

LOL x2

[Karl Henning]

It only goes to show that people of stature like Carter can still misunderstand Cage and, tangentially, Zen Buddhism. Luckily, it doesn't detract anything at all from the music (Carter's and Cage's) and everybody can continue to be happy.

Indeed!  Carter's art endures;  Carter's opinions about art are peripheral, possibly of passing interest, but are not themselves any Absolute Artistic Truth.

[Artem]

Wonderful book on John Cage. It is a great complement to James Pritchett's.

[asin]0143123475[/asin]

Whishlisted it. Thank you for the recomendaiton.

[torut]

Wonderful book on John Cage. It is a great complement to James Pritchett's.

That book looks interesting, thank you. It seems to discuss the influence of Zen on not only Cage himself but also artists around him.

Composer John Cage sought the silence of a mind at peace with itself—and found it in Zen Buddhism, a spiritual path that changed both his music and his view of the universe. [...] Freed to be his own man, Cage originated exciting experiments that set him at the epicenter of a new avant-garde forming in the 1950s. Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, Yoko Ono, Allan Kaprow, Morton Feldman, and Leo Castelli were among those influenced by his 'teaching' and 'preaching.'

Influence of Zen was mentioned in Feldman thread. Although Feldman told that he was not interested in Zen, there might have been indirect influence through Cage.

[snyprrr]

All Out War in  5... 4... 3... 2...

[torut]

A new recording of Cage's string quartets by Bozzini Quartet will be released in 2014. I like Bozzani quartet's Canadian SQs album.

[snyprrr]

A new recording of Cage's string quartets by Bozzini Quartet will be released in 2014. I like Bozzani quartet's Canadian SQs album.

almost 80 minutes!

[petrarch]

That book looks interesting, thank you. It seems to discuss the influence of Zen on not only Cage himself but also artists around him.

It is a gripping account of the path Cage carved and how coherent and thoughtful it ended up being. Zen was perhaps the most enduring influence even though it only came in the 1940s, i.e. almost halfway through his life.

Influence of Zen was mentioned in Feldman thread. Although Feldman told that he was not interested in Zen, there might have been indirect influence through Cage.

Indeed Feldman didn't care for Zen. But one thing they all say is that Cage opened their eyes (and ears).

[bhodges]

Wonderful book on John Cage. It is a great complement to James Pritchett's.

[asin]0143123475[/asin]

My thanks for noting this as well. Have put it on my wishlist, too.

--Bruce

[petrarch]

p.s. - workin' hard on a new piece, you take a transducer microphone and rub it all around your ass; I think it has interesting cross-rhythms. Thank you Buddha.

Ah scatology, the proof of a sophisticated and persuasive argument.

[petrarch]

No need for that in a Cage thread. Just still the mind and fart. Voila musical composition!

LOL x4. I just needed to preserve another of James' gems for posterity.

[Karl Henning]

Ah scatology, the proof of a sophisticated and persuasive argument.

Surgically done!