Scholarly discussion of the music of John Cage.

[Glenn Freeman <>]

Hi Julian,

Not really. I would rather make recordings of John Cage's traffic ... people will eventually come to understand Cage's statement on their own terms.

Best,

Glenn

Hi Glenn,

I must admit to being fascinated by this idea of the use of silence as 'traffic' - would you mind expanding/unpacking this a little more? 

All good wishes,

Julian

On 4 October 2010 15:17, Glenn Freeman <> wrote:

Yes Rob and Cage's ideas were constantly being adapted to different circumstances over the years. Several years after the initial MODE releases Cage composed a piece designed to be recorded, Four4 [in the past you said that One6/One10 was also designed in this way based on your talks to someone who worked with Cage on these pieces at the time].

During his Number Piece period Cage said "Silence ... almost every where in the world now is now traffic." which was a refinement of earlier statements and works by Cage, but this statement also reflected the current type of composition Cage was composing at the time and perhaps better referred to as 'traffic pieces' ... these pieces are about society, technology and use.

Rob Haskins wrote:

> Miguel is correct about the statement. Cage constantly referred to the "use"
> of music, meaning its social use. There's a quotation in a NYT article about
> the first Mode recordings, which I don't have handy. As I recall, Cage
> remarked that he had no use for recordings, but that he was glad the
> recordings had appeared. You might, Miguel, try looking through Musicage,
> where I believe Cage would discuss this thoroughly, and also in the
> interview with Robin White published in View (periodical associated with
> Crown Point Press). Sections in Conversing with Cage related to politics and
> society might also result in success.