Scholarly discussion of the music of John Cage.

[Stefano Pocci <>]

On 06/24/2011 03:30 AM, Jared Steward wrote:

Hi everyone,

I thought I'd start with an introduction, since I've been a "lurker" on this for the past year or so. First of all, I'm a little envious of those of you who knew Cage personally, since I actually didn't learn about him until college in the early to mid 90s when it was too late to meet him!  I'm a percussionist and hope to learn as much as I can about John Cage and his circle of friends and associates. As part of that goal, I've started a web "museum" called Cageum, where I'm putting YouTube clips, audio and other things I've found regarding the subject. If you're interested, the link is below.

The reason I really wanted to write, is because I'd like to expand my library regarding Cage and was wondering what suggestions any of you might have as your top choice of books or recordings or videos. I already have "Silence", Carolyn Brown's "Chance and Circumstance", Elliot Caplan's "Cage/Cunningham" DVD and a few CDs. I've been thinking about getting Gann's book about 4'33'', but what would you list as your top 5 or top 10 books/CDs, etc by or about Cage?

Looking forward to your responses! 

Jared

website: jared.stewardsweb.net

twitter: twitter.com/jaredsteward

blog: Cageum

Hi, I would put "Silence" on top of my book list but since you've already read it I'll replace it with his "A year from monday". My picks:


1. A year from monday
2. For the birds
3. Conversing with Cage

I'll stop here as I have read very good books in italian on Cage (especially "metafisica del silenzio", silence metaphysics) but I cannot address them to a non-italian reader. My very first Cage book was "Conversing with Cage" anyway. It worked as a perfect intro to Cage. I keep on leafing through "For the birds" even if I almost know it by heart: Cage conversing with Daniel Charles is simply fascinating.

Speaking of recordings, Europeras 3&4 are among my favorite Cage pieces although this is a quite odd statement to make about anything cagean:-) Hope this helps, cheers

-- 

Stefano

"When we separate music from
 life what we get is art
 (a compendium of masterpieces)" - John Cage