Scholarly discussion of the music of John Cage.

[greg davis <>]

(sorry if this was sent twice....)

hi friends, 

i dont feel like i can add too much to the cage political / racial discussion 
& all that has been said already (its a very interesting, intelligent & 
engaging discussion so far), but here are some of my thoughts:

i know we all hold cage's ideas & thoughts & philosophies in high regard 
around here, but at the end of the day he was just a composer who was 
dedicated to writing music (his work/practice).

for me, cage's radical politics arise out of his music / scores moreso than 
his words. even though he had very lofty, idealistic (optimistic to a fault 
sometimes!) utopian views of the world & he was a very important & 
influential thinker / figure in the music / art world of the 50s and beyond, 
i dont think its totally fair to hold him up & expect him to be politically 
involved with everything that was going on around him at the time. honestly i 
feel like cage wasnt interested in jumping into the polarization of politics 
/ movements / protests. i think he was turned off by power trips / politics / 
protests on all sides and wanted to see a more positive / affirmative angle 
on life which is what might have made him seem like he was above the fray. he 
seemed to be more interested in social change. and that usually meant 
personal change. (each person is the center of the universe)

chapter 8 of kenneth silverman's book talks about a lot of these issues that 
were discussed previously here. id like to quote a paragraph from that 
chapter which i feel is relevant to this discussion:

"....he had little faith now, he said, in 'parading with posters and so forth 
or adding your name to an advertisement in the new york times'. nor did he 
value black militancy or psychedelic opting-out: 'tell the Black's power's 
not a good word (nor when used with Flower). its precisely power that's not 
needed.' he thought it vital not merely to criticize, protest, or drop out 
but to suggest solutions: 'i shall not attack the evil but rather promote 
what seems to me to be what i call affirmative.'' (pg 211 - 'begin again' by 
kenneth silverman)

and it goes on to say that cage really got most all of his political / social 
ideas at the time from buckminster fuller, marshall mcluhan and some from 
norman brown. (obviously there is zen in the mix too and later thoreau, etc)

(i tend to agree with sebastian) i think its a little bit inflammatory to 
insinuate that cage mightve been a racist (or somewhat racist). ive never 
read anything by cage that leads me to believe that in the slightest way. and 
i dont think his dislike of jazz music makes him a racist either. he didnt 
like jazz for musical reasons & he explained why many times. (i agree with 
many of cage's criticisms of jazz) i dont think that just because he 
dismissed protesting and politics as a vehicle for change or that he didnt 
participate in those things that that makes him a racist in some way. he just 
had a different idea / approach about how to go about make changes. his 
utopian and idealistic views may have made a convenient political retreat for 
cage, but i think thats okay. again, just because you are a composer doesnt 
mean you have to be a politician or protester or activist. again, in the end, 
he was just a person who devoted his life to music.

a couple last points: we have to remember that cage was well into his 50s by 
the time the civil rights & highly political era came around in the 60s. i 
think this is part of the reason he stayed largely out of it while younger 
composers (like wolff, cardew,etc who were in their 30s) got into it. i think 
most people here would agree as one gets older, you become a little more 
conservative or settled and less likely to jump into political struggles / 
social issues enthusiastically. i think this is a big reason for his 
hesitancy.

i think cage's zen foundation also might have something to do with him 
staying out of it. ive found in my (limited) studies of zen buddhism that it 
is mostly apolitical, always focusing on examining & changing the self (maybe 
the most political thing!) also ideas of acceptance & looking within for 
solutions. i think all of these zen ideas are at the core of cage's view.

anyhow, sorry for the ramble. just my two cents on the matter.....
greg



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