John Cage (1912-92)

[Karl Henning]

Pile-driver! Leave it to Cage to outdo Stockenpfeffer.

[petrarch]

Pile-driver! Leave it to Cage to outdo Stockenpfeffer.

This reminded me of a tangential tidbit:

"Please give him a course! He is worth 10 Kreneks!"

From a letter from Stockhausen to Wolfgang Steinecke [the organizer of the Darmstadt summer courses], March 1958. The rivalry is overplayed.

[torut]

For some reason, digital download (flac & mp3) of 26' 1.1499'' for a String Player and 45' for a Speaker is offered for free on cdbaby. (But each track costs $0.99. ) The speaker is John Schneider, just intonation guitarist. A nice voice. Both tracks are good: a solo bass version of 26'1.1499" with and without 45' for a Speaker performed simultaneously.
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/petersschneider

[torut]

No Such Thing as Silence: John Cage's 4'33" by Kyle Gann (Yale University Press)
[asin]0300171293[/asin]

I thought I knew enough about 4'33", but this book revealed several aspects of the work that were enlightening to me. Starting with description of the premiere concert (I thought it was at an ordinary concert hall), the book continues with a short biography of Cage, predecessors and influences (Satie, Russolo, Rauschenberg, Zen, "creative misreading" of Coomaraswamy, ...), events Cage encountered in the path to 4'33", the piece itself (3 versions of notation, history of publishing, changes of Cage's thoughts on the piece, ...), and the influences on future generations: minimalists, pop musicians, critics, etc. It does not solve every mystery surrounding the piece, but it's certainly a concisely summarized, well researched book about the most important work of John Cage.

[7/4]

No Such Thing as Silence: John Cage's 4'33" by Kyle Gann (Yale University Press)
[asin]0300171293[/asin]

I thought I knew enough about 4'33", but this book revealed several aspects of the work that were enlightening to me. Starting with description of the premiere concert (I thought it was at an ordinary concert hall), the book continues with a short biography of Cage, predecessors and influences (Satie, Russolo, Rauschenberg, Zen, "creative misreading" of Coomaraswamy, ...), events Cage encountered in the path to 4'33", the piece itself (3 versions of notation, history of publishing, changes of Cage's thoughts on the piece, ...), and the influences on future generations: minimalists, pop musicians, critics, etc. It does not solve every mystery surrounding the piece, but it's certainly a concisely summarized, well researched book about the most important work of John Cage.

I think Kyle Gann is a great writer. I miss his writing in the Village Voice.

[torut]

I think Kyle Gann is a great writer. I miss his writing in the Village Voice.

I learned of and became liking many American composers thanks to his writings. I started reading music downtown - writings from the village voice. I am looking forward to Concord Sonata book, which I believe is more technical.

[torut]

I enjoyed Kyle's writings on The Music of Conlon Nancarrow, one of my all-time favorite American Composers.

It is expensive but looks very interesting.

[San Antone]

This reminded me of a tangential tidbit:

"Please give him a course! He is worth 10 Kreneks!"

From a letter from Stockhausen to Wolfgang Steinecke [the organizer of the Darmstadt summer courses], March 1958. The rivalry is overplayed.

And he did, with historic consequences.  John Cage visited Darmstadt in 1958 and music in the latter half of the 20th century changed because of it.

[San Antone]

33 Musicians On What John Cage Communicates

As testament to the widespread effect of his influence, many of the comments come from musicians outside of the Classical Music realm.

Excerpts:

Joan La Barbara

Generosity is the word that first comes to mind when I think of John Cage. Having spent many years performing with him, listening to him lecture and also watching him respond to questions posed to him by people who never thought twice about coming and confronting him with scores, problems or queries, I never knew him to back away from a situation or from a question — whether it was simple or complex. Often, when I encounter barriers in my compositional or creative stream, I reflect on his fearless superimposition of works and his joy in discovering something new, and take courage and inspiration from his attitudes to move forward in my own work. John's decision to always say "yes" in the hope of being surprised has affected me greatly, and I am trying to incorporate that into my daily thoughts and actions. He also, of course, communicated freedom and the encouragement to intrepidly continue with one's work and ideas even in the face of adversity — perhaps because of adversity. He communicates all of this still to those of us who continue to rea

Robert Spano

As a young composition student in the '70s, Boulez, Stockhausen, Berio and Carter were standard fare. Then I chanced upon a recording of a Cage string quartet and was teleported to a whole other set of possibilities. The encounter with many of his other works and writings continued to challenge my assumptions of what music is, can be and might be. His name is wonderfully ironic, in that he took so many sounds imprisoned as noise, and liberated them as musical events. He called us to question our own perception before too quickly classifying a sound as beautiful or ugly, and to find beauty in the meeting of perceiver and perceived.

Stephen Drury

"I have nothing to say, and I am saying it." John Cage's most frequently quoted phrase seems to deny any intention of the composer to communicate. Usually forgotten is how he continues: "and that is poetry as I need it." Silence is poetry — the poetry of our own listening. Cage's work invites each of us to discover our own music in our own listening, the sounds set free from the composer's efforts at communication. Releasing the composer's grasp of sound, he hands us pure intimacy with sound. A perfect Zen koan — by not making beauty, Cage shows us beauty.

[San Antone]

One of the best summaries of the music and importance of John Cage is found in the Introduction from The music of John Cage, published by Cambridge University Press. Copyright 1993 by James Pritchett.

First two paragraphs:

John Cage was a composer; this is the premise from which everything in this book follows. On the face of it, this would not appear to be a statement of much moment. Cage consistently referred to himself as a composer. He studied composition with Henry Cowell, Adolph Weiss, and Arnold Schoenberg. He spoke often of having devoted his life to music. He wrote hundreds of compositions that are published by a prominent music publishing house, which have been recorded, and which are performed regularly worldwide. He received commissions from major orchestras, chamber ensembles, soloists, and at least one opera company. He is mentioned in every up-to-date history of music. The only monograph devoted to him was in a series of "studies of composers." Of course John Cage was a composer: everything in his life points to this inescapable fact.

And yet, I must begin this book by defending the obvious. For, even though his credentials are clearly those of a composer, Cage has, as often as not, been treated as something else. It has been stated on various occasions by various authorities that Cage was more a philosopher than a composer, that his ideas were more interesting than his music. Cage, says one history of twentieth-century music, "is not to be considered as a creator in the ordinary sense."1 Another critic wonders whether Cage, after deciding that "he was not going to be one of the world's great composers," refashioned himself into "one of the leading philosophers and wits in twentieth-century music."2 The degree to which this has become the standard way of dealing with Cage is revealed in a story told by Kyle Gann: a writer for the New York Times was told by his editors that he could not refer to Cage as "the most important and influential composer of our time," but rather had to identify him as a "music-philosopher."

[Rons_talking]

I believe it is important to consider Cage as a composer first. Like his contemporaries, he experimented in many conventional ways trying to get a sense of order and sound in his music.  The evolution of Cage in his music is gradual and reponds as much to his duties as a composer for Merce Cunningham's group as to any asthetic considerations. Cage needed to create a sound world that had rhythmic precision for the dancers. His use of prepared piano was more a function of lack of working space than anything else. The arithmatic structures that work so well in Sonatas and Interludes provided a pattern of irregular-sounding repitition that allowed the composer to often predict the duration of his pieces to the second; that was also good for the dancers. As the music evolved there were all sorts of structural developments. It has always bothered me that a lot of folks think he just came out  with 4'33 and other conceptual works to make a statement. His development from the early serial works on has always made musical sense, like it or not.

Not that his ideas about music aren't interesting. Of course they are. But he did work hard at being a composer of music and his output backs that up.

One of the best summaries of the music and importance of John Cage is found in the Introduction from The music of John Cage, published by Cambridge University Press. Copyright 1993 by James Pritchett.

First two paragraphs:

John Cage was a composer; this is the premise from which everything in this book follows. On the face of it, this would not appear to be a statement of much moment. Cage consistently referred to himself as a composer. He studied composition with Henry Cowell, Adolph Weiss, and Arnold Schoenberg. He spoke often of having devoted his life to music. He wrote hundreds of compositions that are published by a prominent music publishing house, which have been recorded, and which are performed regularly worldwide. He received commissions from major orchestras, chamber ensembles, soloists, and at least one opera company. He is mentioned in every up-to-date history of music. The only monograph devoted to him was in a series of "studies of composers." Of course John Cage was a composer: everything in his life points to this inescapable fact.

And yet, I must begin this book by defending the obvious. For, even though his credentials are clearly those of a composer, Cage has, as often as not, been treated as something else. It has been stated on various occasions by various authorities that Cage was more a philosopher than a composer, that his ideas were more interesting than his music.

[Karl Henning]

And yet, I must begin this book by defending the obvious. For, even though his credentials are clearly those of a composer, Cage has, as often as not, been treated as something else.

Indeed.  Cage was ever more of a composer than I-forget-his-name was.

[Dax]

For which we are more than grateful.

Aren't we?

[Karl Henning]

Aye!

[Dax]

And he did, with historic consequences.  John Cage visited Darmstadt in 1958 and music in the latter half of the 20th century changed because of it.

Oops. My previous post was supposed to be a reply to this.

[San Antone]

Oops. My previous post was supposed to be a reply to this.

Different people will answer that question differently. 

[TheGSMoeller]

I have very little Cage on disc but would like to expand that. I would like one or two recs of affordable recordings of Cage's piano music. Not really interested in a box set just single discs and I'm also not necessarily new to the composer so I'm not worried about great-introduction recordings. I've looked at some but I'm just not sure who is considered a quality Cage interpreter, if there even is one.
Thanks 

[Karl Henning]

I love this disc:

[asin]B000062YLR[/asin]

And my old pianist Buffalo mate sez of In a Landscape:

One of my favorites from Uncle John.

[TheGSMoeller]

I love this disc:

[asin]B000062YLR[/asin]

And my old pianist Buffalo mate sez of In a Landscape:

Thanks, Karl. Cheers! 

[not edward]

I have very little Cage on disc but would like to expand that. I would like one or two recs of affordable recordings of Cage's piano music. Not really interested in a box set just single discs and I'm also not necessarily new to the composer so I'm not worried about great-introduction recordings. I've looked at some but I'm just not sure who is considered a quality Cage interpreter, if there even is one.
Thanks 

I've not actually heard the disc Karl recommends, yet. I really should, because there's some really fine recordings in the Schleiermacher set: I know it's two discs but I really enjoy the recording of the later pieces (it's got two of One^2, which is a great example of Cage demonstrating that, when he felt like it, he was quite capable of writing music that is dramatically effective in a largely conventional manner, as well as the spare and austere One and One^5, the more experimental Etudes Boreales and the original piano version of the infamous ASLSP.

[asin]B00005AXPH[/asin]

Oh, and the two-disc sets of the two-piano pieces is great. A couple of mid-40s pieces with prepared pianos, plus the late Music for Two and the austere Two^2, apparently inspired by a conversation with Sofia Gubaidulina about understanding of musical time.

[asin]B00004UAIK[/asin]