Scholarly discussion of the music of John Cage.

[Clemens Gresser <>]

P.S.
It's lame to reply to your own postings, but... I just found the
magazine's web page, and an abstract (see
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/plenty-of-nothing-15539?search=1);
I like the quotation by Stravinsky though. ;-)

Plenty of Nothing
Terry Teachout
October 2010

Abstract –
Who deserves to be considered America’s most significant classical
composer? Concertgoers of a certain age will doubtless choose Aaron
Copland or George Gershwin, the creators of the first distinctively
American-sounding styles of classical composition, while more
contemporary listeners are more likely to cite Philip Glass or John
Adams, who made minimalism the dominant classical-music idiom of the
postwar era. But if “significant” is taken to mean “influential,” then
a strong, if seemingly paradoxical, case can be made for a composer
who, for all the undeniable influence he has exerted on American
music, failed to write even one work that has made its way into the
repertoires of any well-known orchestra, opera company, chamber group,
singer, or instrumentalist.

If John Cage is known to the average concert goer today, it is for a
piece of “music” that by conventional standards is nothing of the
kind. 4'33", “composed” in 1952, consists of three movements during
which the piece’s performer or performers (it can be performed by any
combination of instrumentalists and/or singers) come on stage and sit
in silence for a total of four minutes and 33 seconds. Not
surprisingly, it was widely assumed at the time that 4'33" was a joke,
a piece about nothing. Igor Stravinsky acidly remarked that he looked
forward to hearing “works of major length” by similarly inclined
composers.

About the Author
Terry Teachout, our chief culture critic and the drama critic of the
Wall Street Journal, wrote about Moss Hart in the last issue. He is at
work on a biography of Duke Ellington.

---


On 4 November 2010 09:30, Clemens Gresser 
<>
 wrote:
> Dear All,
>
> Out from the dungeons of busyness...
> I just found an alert email in my inbox, for the following Cage-related 
> text:
>
> COMMENTARY -NEW YORK- AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE- OCT. (2010) pp. 55-58
> Plenty of Nothing: How the composer John Cage killed musical modernism
> Teachout, T.
>
> If I manage to trace this text and read it, I will send a follow-up to this.
> If anyone beats me to it, please let me/the list now whether it's
> a) pro/anti/"neutral" Cage
> and
> b) has an interesting argument
>
> Best wishes,
> Clemens
> --
> *****
> MusiCB3 Blog: http://musicb3.wordpress.com/
> My home page: http://home.arcor.de/cgw/
>



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