I love cage so much. He's such a spirit and a happy person. His piano pieces such as in a landscape and dream are something that can prove HE'S A VERY TALENTED ONE.
John Cage 1912 - 1992 American Composer, Music Theorist, Writer, Philosopher, Artist, Poet, Expert on Mycology and Brilliant Chess Player. A Very, Very Clever man!
He was an Expert on Fungi! He was also an Enthusiastic Horticulturalist. "I have nothing to say and I am saying it and that is poetry as I need it." From 'Lecture on Nothing' ( 1949 ) John Cage ( 1912 - 1992 ) I think it is brainy stuff this!
I think he was an amateur in chess and mycology, he was a talented composer until he got inspired by Zen Buddhism. Not sure he was a good artist or poet. He was interesting though.
For those who think Cage a charlatan, it is important to see that the irreverence he expressed toward music and art is balanced by a complete reverence for what we might call the spirit of the things of this world. It may take a great composer to offer grand and colorful gestures of novel sonic organization, but Cage, in applying such intensity to the curious effects of water in a conch shell, or to sounds of a cactus meeting a feather, is his own specie of greatness. If we think he is placing these sounds on the same pedestal we place the composers of the great colorful gesture, we are likely to regard him as a charlatan. But he is not placing them on a pedestal. The sounds are standing on their own.
+William Winslow I see what you are trying to say, and I can appreciate some of the ideas that Cage contributes to music. However, I tend to agree with Roger Scruton and others who see the arts as being quantifiably valuable by ones ability to creatively organize (sound in the case of music) in order to transcend the mundane. These works can be revisited again and again to gain more meaning, whereas most "found" art forms are simple statements intended to shock, and lose their meaning when they lose their shock value. Such glorification of the commonplace, in my opinion, has contributed to the overall devaluation of the arts in the public eye. If anything is art, and anyone is an artist, then why honor either?
+MrNoelJMIS I do not regard Cage as a charlatan. That does not mean I wish to defend all of his positions. Specifically, I take issue with the notion that music and sound are the same things. Moreover, I do not even regard sound, as such, to be Cage's primary focus. Cage's purpose, it seems to me, was largely didactic. The same I would not say for Morton Feldman, whose music seems to be more faithfully aligned with sound as such. I would not agree that Cage's productions have shock as their intent, although he does little to prevent the possibility of being shocked, the composer included. However, the devaluation of art, a stated intent of Cage's (in association with Dada), is one of the movement's failures. What has happened, is that a new aesthetic has asserted itself and has endured from Duchamp through the American Expressionists and the New York School. It is art resisting its own established practices and attitudes. This is something Cage lamented saying, "you look at it today, and it is has become simply art." Cage claimed his chance operations resisted his tastes, but really, what they did was develop new tastes and sensibilities which can now be approached intuitively, rather than with his estranged mechanics. It is the aesthetic of the light as opposed to heavy hand. It is the art of delay and let-be. It has a softer edge. To me, THIS is Cage's true legacy, as opposed to what Cage said about what he did.
William Winslow unfortunately, i think that one must be better acquainted with art for that soft-edge-but-artistic message to present itself. For the average Joe, I believe Cage (et al)'s legacy is "art does not need to demonstrate skill." Therefore, we see a modern devaluation in the wake of his philosophy, where everyone is an artist, and everything is art...and that is tragic.
+MrNoelJMIS Cage's reputation among the "average Joe" is not what I am talking about. I am talking about his influence within the arts in general, whether it is an acknowledged influence with Cage's name on it, or a diffuse presence passing from artist to artist. I do not regard a situation in which more of us are artists as a tragic condition. The outstanding practitioners you might champion will still be doing what they do.
William Winslow I suppose it can be better to consider more people artists, unless the result of that is a general devaluing of art to something "anyone can do," to the detriment and literal financial degradation of the arts in general. If urinating in a bucket with a crucifix in it is given a place in the museum next to works which demonstrate artistic skill (form, line, color, etc.) and 4 minutes of silence or random blips of advertisements from groups of transistor radios are "performed" in concert with pieces of music which demonstrate compositional skill, I believe it whittles away at the view that artistic directors and curators can distinguish between thoughtful, organized expression and chaos. If we were to begin stocking library shelves with significant numbers of stapled-together pages full of letters accidentally typed by babies, I think you would see a similar effect in literature over time. In a way, one could argue that random internet blogging is similar, although none of these have yet been published by reputable publishers. This is just a concern I have held for a while, being a musician and music educator.
Deefex dB I thought the same thing...although I’m pretty sure Kanye was influenced by kubrick’s ‘eyes wide shut’ who, I would not be surprised, may have been influenced by John cage
Interviewers and journalists have been remiss in not asking Philip Glass a very important question. Does he or does he not know that his work symphonic/choral work " Itaipu " celebrates an ecological disaster? The Itaipu Dam, constructed on the Paraná River without any public input during the Brazilian military dictatorship, destroyed forever, upriver from the dam project, a spectacular series of waterfalls called in Portuguese Sete Quedas (Seven Falls). These falls had an even larger volume of water than the famous Iguaçu Falls. While visiting Brazil Glass went to Itaipu and was wined and dined by Brazilian television soap opera stars, The composer apparently made no attempt to learn about the environmental impacts of the damn project. Brazil's most famous poet of the time, Carlos Drummond de Andrade, wrote a poem that was an elegy to the forever lost natural wonder that the clueless composer disregarded.
I've read/heard many artist statements in my time, have to say, most if not all are pretentious encrusted hogwash. Cages statements however come from such depths, and with such honesty, that I know within all my being it's true.
It's really not too esoteric. He's for gentleness and lack of willfullness. It's a critique of most western music, even art in general. When you 'get' him you see that most artists are aggressively trying to impose themselves on you.