Scholarly discussion of the music of John Cage.

[Ralph Lichtensteiger <>]

dear Jared,

Here's my Cage-literature list, in anarchic order...

hope this will inspire you.

By Cage:

M: Writings ’67–’72, 1973 by Wesleyan University Press — my favorite

X: writings '79-'82, 1983 by Wesleyan University Press

Empty Words: Writings '73-'78, 1979 by Wesleyan University Press

Silence: Lectures and Writings, Wesleyan; 1st edition (June 15, 1961) — essential

A Year from Monday: New Lectures and Writings, Wesleyan; 1st edition (May 15, 1967)

Themes and Variations, Station Hill Press (June 1982) — out of print, but this is a very interesting text

I-VI: MethodStructureInten... (Cage's Charles Eliot Norton Lectures), Wesleyan (October 15, 1997)

Composition In Retrospect, Exact Change (October 1, 2008)

FOR THE BIRDS, In Conversation with Daniel Charles. 239 pp. Boston: Marion Boyars — a brilliant discussion book

John Cage Book of Days 2011, The John Cage Trust; Egmt Min edition (July 31, 2010)

Anarchy: New York City-January 1998, Wesleyan; 1st Wesleyan ed edition (July 15, 2001)

Notations, Something Else Press; First Edition edition (1969) — out of print, a great book

On Cage:

The Cambridge companion to John Cage By David Nicholls — one of the best resources about Cage

Joan Retallack, Musicage: Cage muses on Words-Art-Music, New England 1996 — discussions about art, aesthetics and concepts

Marjorie Perloff & Charles Junkerman, John Cage: Composed in America, Chicago 1994

James Pritchett, The Music of John Cage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993

The Roaring Silence: John Cage: A Life by David Revill

The Boulez-Cage Correspondence [Paperback], Jean-Jacques Nattiez (Editor), Robert Samuels (Editor), Cambridge University Press (January 27, 1995) — important correspondence document

Books and writers that influenced Cage:

Norman O. Brown, Love's Body. New York: Random House, 1966

Suzuki, Daisetz Teitaro. (1927) Essays in Zen Buddhism. Series no. 1. London: Luzac. — essential

———. (1933) Essays in Zen Buddhism. Series no. 2. London: Luzac.

———. (1934) Essays in Zen Buddhism. Series no. 3. London: Luzac.

Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy, The Transformation of Nature in Art, (Sterling Pub Private Ltd, 1996)

Journal by Henry David Thoreau — essential

The Portable Thoreau (Portable Library, Penguin Books, 698 pages) — essential

Ulysses by James Joyce — essential

Finnegans Wake by James Joyce

and the writings of

Gertrude Stein

Buckminster Fuller

Marshall McLuhan

Aristotle

Marcel Duchamp

Ezra Pound

Best,

Ralph Li

http://lichtensteiger.net

On Jun 24, 2011, at 3:30 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