[CAUT] John Cage, "The Earth Shall Bear Again"

[Fred Sturm]

On 10/20/05 2:28 PM, "Jeff Tanner" <jtanner@mozart.sc.edu> wrote:

> 
> On Oct 20, 2005, at 3:10 PM, ed440@mindspring.com wrote:
> 
>> Jeff-
>> Who is so concerned about such accuracy?
> 
> Well, Cage (or the publisher) implies it, for one thing.
> 
>> If the performer is concerned, let him/her find a recording of the
>> piece performed by a recognized authority, then adjust your piano
>> to make similar sounds.
> 
> We don't have recordings of what Beethoven intended, and we typically
> don't perform it on exactly the same instruments he composed on, nor
> at the same pitch (though we can) and we can recreate our best
> interpretation of the music itself, even if we don't exactly
> duplicate the tonality of the instruments he composed for.  But
> Beethoven could write down on a piece of paper the notations, tempos
> and dynamics he was hearing in his mind, and scholars of his work
> will come very close to interpreting his intentions.
> 
> But if we give Cage any credibility at all beyond being totally
> stoned, he seems to have had specific sounds in mind that he, ahem,
> "discovered" that can't be notated in the music.  (perhaps thwack!?
> Thunk!? Thwonk!? Donkt!?)  It seems that we are "dumbing down" the
> music when we have to have a recording to hear what he heard.  Am I
> making sense?
> 
> (on the other hand, just seeing some of these "Woa! Let's see what
> happens if we try this!" sounds, I could envision a stoned out
> composer saying, "Oh groovy, dude!  You're getting some tones that's
> way cooler than what I was thinking of!")  :-)
> 
> Jeff

Hi Jeff,
    Actually, John Cage was about as far from the stoned out beatnik as you
could get. A very sober person, with an engaging personality, someone who
would be described by many as a guru-like person. Very mellow, very
level-headed, very sensitive. This description from meeting him at UNM when
he was the featured composer at our annual Composer's Symposium, from
watching him on a couple of documentary videos (from younger years), and
from conversation with one of our faculty members, who published a book
devoted to Cage a few years ago, The Unsounded Self.
    I think it is fascinating to meet people like this, after having formed
am impression from other sources. Cecil Taylor is another example.
Absolutely brilliant person, and amazingly virtuosic pianist. I had the
impression he was a fake before I met him, attended a couple performances,
watched a documentary. Bottom line: best not to jump to conclusions.
Regards,
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico

PS OTOH, Cage wrote some pieces which consist of instructions to have, say,
eight radios all playing at once, and to change channels randomly. I'm
afraid I don't have a lot of patience with that side of his "creative life"
which came later, after most of the prepared piano stuff. He got heavily
into chance as a "compositional tool." I'd just as soon sit at a busy
intersection, or out in the woods, and listen to the ambient noise.