Scholarly discussion of the music of John Cage.

[matteo pittoni <>]

Dear Vitor, 

I think that - contrarily to 4'33'' -  the fact that the piece's name is 0'00'' doesn't necessarily mean that it's meant to last zero seconds... the instructions don't talk about the duration of the piece. 

Besides, a friend and me have tried to perform that piece of Stockhausen from Aus den sieben Tagen, and yes, we sincerely attempted to "play at the rhythm of the universe". Were we joking? Was Stockhausen joking? 

Best regards, 

Matteo

On 25 October 2011 21:45, Vitor Rua <> wrote:

Dear Rob,

many thanks by your words.

of course its a composition !!!! AND A VERY VERY VERY GOOD ONE !!! ONE THAT WILL STAY AS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT OF THE HISTORY OF ART !!!

But its a WORK OF ART ... not a WORK OF MUSIC... the problem is that cage was a composer... but also a cooker (excelent) a philosopher (very good) and a VERY FUNNY GUY !!! VERY !!!

you are write that when he embraces the chance thing the definition of russolo apropriated by cage and varèse lost interest for him...although he use this definition forever...until he died...

when you say: "It's not conventionally musical" you are right... its not music at all ! its a very very good piece of ART... and its the most important conceptual musical composition ever write... but only CONCEPTUAL...

when cage writes to a trumpet plays 10 octaves higher than a trumpet can play... what do you think it is???... conceptual music!!!... and a very funny thing !!!

look: HUMOR ITS A VERY VERY GOOD THING !!!! VERY IMPORTANT !!! SOME ANTROPOCENTRIC IMPORTANT PEOPLE SAYS HUMOR IS ONLY BELONG TO HUMAN BEEINGS...

so whats the problem with humor after all?.............

Dear rob: I use your email to answer more to the other friends than to you: sorry...

many thanks to all

vitor rua

On 25 Oct 2011, at 19:40, Rob Haskins wrote:

Sorry, I accidentally sent this only to wonderful Vitor:

With all due respect to Vitor, I would call 0'00" a composition. It's not conventionally musical, but its instructions (to perform a disciplined action at the highest level of amplification before feedback occurs) ensure that the piece is about the sounds produced. 

The concept of organized sound, for Cage, largely disappears once Cage embraces chance operations. For at this point, any continuity (read: organization) becomes acceptable (Lecture on Something). 

Sorry I can't write more on this at the moment.

Best,

Rob

On Tue, Oct 25, 2011 at 2:33 PM, Jim Flannery <> wrote:

Tuesday, October 25, 2011, 11:08:00 AM, one wrote:

> if you create organized sound performing 0`00``you are performing it
> wrong !!!

So when Cage performed the piece, he was doing it wrong?

I think you've under-understood the score.

--
Best regards,
 Jim Flannery
 

--
Rob Haskins, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and
     Coordinator, Graduate Studies
Department of Music, College of Liberal Arts
University of New Hampshire
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Durham, NH 03824
603-862-3987 (office)
603-862-3155 (fax)
<http://unh.edu/music/>
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