After blogging about who is sweeter -- Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, or Sarah Jessica Parker? -- Gabe and Tony ask who is lamer -- Marcel Duchamp or John Cage? While Cage's place in history is acknowledged:
John Cage was a revolutionary musical artist throughout much of the 20th century. On the sweet side, he was one of the first to experiment with electronics in music. Of course, disco couldn't have happened without electronics in music, but neither would the sweet intro to Baba O'Reilly, so you be the judge.
So why is Cage lame?:
Why, you ask? Because of 4'33. What is 4'33? It is a "song," or more accurately a "performance," as simply playing the song on a cd is a bit hollow, in more ways than one...I say: Shennanigans!... And just for the record, I do think these are all works of art. Very lame works of art.
For regular readers, you might notice I really enjoy hearing how listeners love Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings. I may have a new interest: those listeners who hate the music of John Cage in general and/or 4' 33" specifically.
Which is a lead-in to a post by Mr. Appoggiatura about the three factors that determine musical taste: exposure and musical training, culture and social ties, and genes and personality. He uses jazz as an example of an art form suffering due to lack of exposure and thus lack of familiarity with its more complex harmony and rhythms. As for the genetics/personality dimension, I'll reiterate a relevant John Cage quote:
I certainly had no feeling for harmony, and Schoenberg thought that that would make it impossible for me to write music. He said 'You'll come to a wall you won't be able to get through.' So I said, 'I'll beat my head against that wall.'
The first reference to 4'33" came about in a talk that Cage gave at Vassar College in 1947 or 1948. It was part of an interdisciplinary conference, coming at the time when he was beginning his study of oriental philosophy. He said that there ought to be a piece that had no sounds in it. Although the germ of an idea was there, it would be five years before he would actually write it. The next year Cage wrote that he wanted to "compose a piece of uninterrupted silence and sell it to Muzak Co. It will be three or four and a half minutes in length -- those being the standard lengths of 'canned music' -- and its title will be Silent Prayer."
Some interpretations of 4'33" are all about how he wanted people to really listen to sounds around them, like a precursor to Deep Listening. But maybe he just wanted a break from all the intentional sounds that are being thrown at us constantly. Here, have a moment of peace and quiet and non-intention. Or maybe he just hated Muzak. Who doesn't?
Posted by: celeste | December 24, 2004 at 06:50 PM
sorry. forgot a link on the quote: http://music.research.home.att.net/4min33se.htm
Posted by: celeste | December 24, 2004 at 06:51 PM
IM TRYING TO FIND INFO ON A PICTURE TITLE WALL TO WALL JOHN CAGE. BY ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG ANYONE WITH INFO PLEASE CONTACT ME THANKS PHIL
Posted by: PHIL | February 27, 2005 at 07:02 PM