Scholarly discussion of the music of John Cage.

[Semih Firincioglu <>]

Stefano, Lecture on Nothing is one of the several writings I just translated
into Turkish. I was kind of surprised by this dingbat as well and I scanned
it to be used in the Turkish book. Yet, I just want to point out that
Silence was not put together very carefully, there are several reference
errors, etc. There may even be a missing-line mistake in the Lecture (in
terms of 48-based structure). The book may have been put together fairly
quickly and probably there was no one to properly edit something that
unusual. Plus, the technology was not computer-based of course.

In short, that dingbat may have been chosen as one of the interesting but
limited possibilities at that time. I wouldn't look for deeper meanings.

Talking about meaning: I kind of got stuck with the translation of "I have
nothing to say and I am saying it," believe it or not. In English it may
mean "I don't have anything to say and that is what I am saying" or "all I
have is "nothing" and that "nothing" is what I am delivering." You can go
only in one direction in Turkish and I took the first route but it still
bugs me. Appropriately obsessive and possibly silly, I guess.

Semih

On 7/17/12 9:21 AM, "Rod Stasick" 
<>
 wrote:

> Also, I might add that possibly someone who is familiar
> with the unusual typographic marks of the time may have
> some insight into the "Scorpio" sign's use. Unusual marks
> that would divide a text - such as the "Section" sign (sometimes
> known as the "double s" sign), the "Hedera" (looks a bit like an
> ivy leaf with stem in various disguises) or the "Pilcrow"
> (the "backwards P") were used at times, but I don't know
> if this "Scorpio" was in occasional use or just something
> of a whim.
> 
> ®ø
> 
> 
> ---
> http://stasick.org
> 
> 
> 
> On Jul 17, 2012, at 7:37 AM, Stefano Pocci wrote:
> 
>> On 07/17/2012 02:03 PM, Melvyn Poore wrote:
>>> i'm on holiday right now so i can't check: if you read the introduction to
>>> lecture on nothing cage describes the structure of the lecture. count the
>>> lines between the symbols. it's just like his other music of that 
>>> period...
>>> 
>>> Melvyn Poore
>>> 
>>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> It is the zodiac symbol of the virgin, Cage's zodiac sign since he was born
>> on September 5th. Could this be the simple explanation? Thanks for 
>> replying.
>> 
>> -- 
>> 
>> Stefano
>> 
>> "She's wearing nothing but a smile"
>> 
>