Re: 4'33" by John Cage

[Todd Elliott <toddbert@gmail.com>]

Cage delved into a lot of uncharted territory, and did a lot of explaining about his theory and methods, often with a great deal of good natured humor. I don't know what about that creates a 'pseudo-intellectual smokescreen'. He seems the rarest of birds, an avant-gardist who wasn't all uptight about the 'seriousness' of his compositions. His methodical disassembly of musical rules in new and interesting ways make him a very important figure in 20th century music-- a genius. We're still catching up to some of them. 

T

On Fri, Mar 28, 2014 at 5:08 AM, andy butler <akbutler@tiscali.co.uk> wrote:

On 28/03/2014 10:42, Rick Walker wrote:

On 3/27/2014 6:44 PM, Loopers-Delight-d-request@loopers-delight.com wrote:

0'00" by John Cage.

Just for historical accuracy, I believe you are referring to the compostion, 4'33" bt Cage.


Many people, parenthetically,  don't understand what he was attempting in that piece.

Yup, that's how I figure it

I heard that the score calls for opening windows and doors to increase the ambient
sounds filtering into the concert hall.
(not seen such a score however)

It's also true that Cage, ( in "Silence" iirc ) refers to it as his "silent piece".

Maybe he was pragmatic about how the piece caught on.

It's a real shame that a lot of Cage's beautiful music is lost to
the psuedo-intellectual smokescreen which he seems to
have done nothing to disperse.

For anyone unfamiliar, the prepared piano compositions are probably the best place to
start, kind of Eric Satie goes atonal percussion.
( I think they're a Rick fave too?)


andy

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