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Last edited by french frank; 07-11-11, 11:57. -
What's it all about, then? - J Cage
The expression "pearls before swine" springs to mind, JS. It's like Simon was using a pseudonym. The many comments by musical illiterati re. the YouTube item offering Cage's Piano Concerto[sic] (the title on the score reads "Concert for Piano and Orchestra") are on a similar or even lower level.Originally posted by John Skelton View PostIf you don't like 4:33", Panjandrum, Cage wrote much other music. Why don't you try some of that? You might enjoy it
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Basically, those who don't appreciate 4'33" tend not to be very fond of listening in general. -
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Precisely what I thought upon reading you 'contributions' to this thread.Originally posted by Panjandrum View Post
Happy New Ears!, reproduced in A Year from Monday, said it all, back in 1963.
Oh, and on the matter of bad performance, the very mention of which elicited a laughter emoticon from you, there is even one on disc. On an otherwise fine CD (it was originally issued on vinyl) there is a version based on three outdoor environmental recordings made in Hungary. To me that is ramming the point home so hard as to miss it. The Frank Zappa version is far better:
Last edited by Bryn; 07-11-11, 11:17.Comment
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I merely asked for some kind of justification as to the significance of 4'33", rather than the customary obeisance before a holy relic of modernism; you take it too personally.Originally posted by Bryn View PostComment
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I think it is rather significant because it challenges an individual's relationship with silence.
One can listen to most music attentively or have it on in the background. By contrast, silence is something that we always have on in the background. When we shut up for a minute and say we are going to listen to silence, we are actually listening out for whatever is the sound that breaks it, however slight. As for momentary silence, well, this is understood to be used to good effect in music or drama or conversation. Arguably, it is in essence an alternative sound. Not silence at all.
What Cage does surely is to lure us into listening to a slice of permanent silence as if it were sound. Because this is done over a reasonably lengthy period, we may become bored but in turning away from it, our senses are then attuned to the real silence around us. Not the temporary pause for dramatic effect but the stuff that is always with us even when there are others in the vicinity. In one sense an aura. The closest companion anyone can have and bizarrely the most overlooked.
But who or what is it? That is what he gets us to ask.Comment
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The serious discussion is going on on the Cut & Splice thread (Hear&Now board), so why not copy your contribution over there? This thread is for the knockabout stuff.It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.Comment
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Oh ok. Thanks french frank. I tend to find that I am at my most serious while veering towards the whimsical. This is a peculiar character fault of mine - one of many - but I will pigeon hole it there. It will still be here so others can make of it what they will.Comment
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Sorry frenchie but this editorial decision of your is a bad one. Not only have you selectively removed messages which you wrongly interpreted as comedic. You have vitiated the continuity of the original thread.Comment
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Quite so. In discussion of 4'33", how can you decide which are comedic and which are not. Half the time I think those who discuss it in earnest are taking the proverbial anyway. It's all a joke - or is it?Originally posted by Bryn View PostComment
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I opened the Hear & Now board specifically for people who have a genuine interest in and/or knowledge of contemporary music to discuss it, not for people to sling abuse at each other. My use of the the word 'comedy' was ironic.Originally posted by Bryn View Post
I left the thread open on a positive and helpful note in the hope that the discussion could restart from there.It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.Comment
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'Ad that John Cage in the back of the cab once...
What did 'ee say?
F%*" All!!!Comment
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In which case I guess he must have had something to say, though it might not have been poetry to him.Originally posted by burning dog View Post
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