Originally posted by pastoralguy
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One that's heard out loud and not just seen? -
I really think it's time for me to be a bit more grown-up about Mr C's most (in)famous composition. For example: is it mere coincidence that it occupies a number of seconds that is equal to Absolute Zero on the Kelvin scale? Has anybody done any serious research on the possible influence of Byrd on Cage?
I still struggle with this composer's works, but I would never go so far as to say that they should be barred.Comment
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Cage conceived and realised 4'33" and moved on. When his work is discussed by composers and other musicians there are far more interesting things to talk about than this. It's a mistake to think his entire reputation as a ground-breaking musical thinker is based on it. Actually it's based on the sounds he did compose far more than on the sounds he didn't compose. Here for example are three very different orchestral pieces: Sixty-Seven, Quartets I-VIII and Thirty Pieces for Five Orchestras, all IMO beautiful additions to the orchestral repertoire. Of course not everyone will like the sound of them, but they do make it clear that this composer was as concerned with sound and beauty as any other, he just approached these things in new ways that might expand listeners' awareness of them, which to my mind is one of the most important things music can aspire to! (As with the Buddhist ideas that Cage found inspiring, if it's a struggle you're doing it wrong...)
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Originally posted by Richard Barrett View PostCage conceived and realised 4'33" and moved on. When his work is discussed by composers and other musicians there are far more interesting things to talk about than this. It's a mistake to think his entire reputation as a ground-breaking musical thinker is based on it. Actually it's based on the sounds he did compose far more than on the sounds he didn't compose. Here for example are three very different orchestral pieces: Sixty-Seven, Quartets I-VIII and Thirty Pieces for Five Orchestras, all IMO beautiful additions to the orchestral repertoire. Of course not everyone will like the sound of them, but they do make it clear that this composer was as concerned with sound and beauty as any other, he just approached these things in new ways that might expand listeners' awareness of them, which to my mind is one of the most important things music can aspire to! (As with the Buddhist ideas that Cage found inspiring, if it's a struggle you're doing it wrong...)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrY-WVo7oKk
Thanks for this.Comment
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Silent Witness (aptly named) ::https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000kwm0
"How experimental composer John Cage came to write his infamous silent piece, 4’33”, shattering our perception of silence and opening our ears to the music of everyday sounds."
I found this quite enlightening. He may have been inspired to compose the piece by the work of Yoko Ono, together with his Buddhist practises, if my memory serves.Comment
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Presto are currently offering the DVD 'Leaving Home - Orchestral Music In The 20th Century' for £9.93 - an ideal opportunity to examine a piece of Rattle's Cage.Comment
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... featuring a piece written in 1939 (First Construction (in Metal)) which doesn't really give very much of an idea of what's special about Cage's music I would say.Originally posted by LMcD View PostComment
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Yoko Ono would have been around 19 years old when Cage wrote 4'33". Having lived there in her early years but educated in Japan, she moved back to New York in September 1952, the month following the premiere of 4'33" which was originally conceived in the late 1940s and described in outline in a lecture at Vassar College.Originally posted by Quarky View PostComment
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Perhaps I have been wrong to base my view of Cage on the basis of one work which I have never heard!
I’ll give it a listen when I have the time. There are a few recordings on Spotify!Comment
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You have quite likely heard it but not listened to it.Originally posted by cloughie View Post
You might like to try this for size:
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I had a feeling you'd come up with that one! - well, it's a very beautiful thing to be sure.Originally posted by Bryn View Post
Surely one shouldn't base one's view of any composer on one work, particularly if one hasn't heard it? And particularly, I'd say, of a composer who devoted his whole life to being open-minded and optimistic about music and humanity!Comment
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I reckon the end of the Quodlibet would make a good radio station call-sign.Originally posted by Richard Barrett View Post
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Late change to the script of this year's Christmas Panto:Originally posted by cloughie View Post
'Where's the bird?'
'In the cage, singing'
'I can't hear it - where is it?'
BEHIIIND YOU!Comment
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John Cage: "I am for the birds, not for the cages in which people sometimes place them."Comment
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Youtube is not exactly short on John Cage video and audio recordings.Comment
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