Scholarly discussion of the music of John Cage.

[John Whiting <>]

Title: John Whiting

In 1967 I was lecturing at English art colleges on, among other subjects, Zen and the Art of John Cage - not biographical detail but quotations, events and compositions in which Cage exemplified the spirit of Zen. My examples were on 5x8 cards which I shuffled at the podium before I began. Those were great days in the art colleges -- they caught on so instinctively that by the end they could easily have carried on without me.
 

On 04/07/2012 18:18, Richard Friedman wrote:

I will be hosting an event with Kay Larson, the author,  in Berkeley on July 26. I find the book extremely fascinating. Few biographies of JC deal with his interest and involvement in Zen. That's probably because few biographers know much about it. Kay's book and her extensive research show how deeply involved he was, starting with D.T. Suzuki's lectures at Columbia Univ in the early 50's, and how his discovery of Zen led him out of a deep personal crisis, which Larson identifies as key to understanding JC's work and life.

It is easy to read too much Zen into everything. But Larson does give a fascinating view into Cage's discovery of Zen and how Zen worked its way into not only his work but that of others in his circle. It is an extraordinary portrait of that period (1948-59) and adds some valuable new information. 

I mentioned the book to this alias a few months ago. I'm still curious to read how others see it. It's not a typical biography, and it's worth a discussion. 

http://goo.gl/ZS5Zx

On Wed, Jul 4, 2012 at 8:33 AM, john saylor <> wrote:

hi

On 7/4/12, Rod Stasick <> wrote:
> http://tinyurl.com/7al3l6q

thx, this may be quite interesting to me. if anyone reads it and would
care to amplify contradict or ignore the review in some notes of their
own; please do. i have such a hard time with promotional material- i
never know whether to believe it.

--
\js [http://or8.net/~johns/] : "complete obscure contrariness"

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Richard Friedman
Oakland, California
http://rchrd.com/

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--

John Whiting

Guild of Food Writers

www.whitings-writings.com

KPFA: The birth of real radio in America

Thank you one and all! . . . to the people who changed my life.