Scholarly discussion of the music of John Cage.

[Rod Stasick <>]

In a nutshell.

thanks,

Rod

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Now playing: Nny - Sy.Kic/Pa.Trn

On feb 13, 2556 BE, at 10:03, Andrew Culver wrote:

Hello Silence Listers.

John Cage was on a project, to free himself from his likes and dislikes. Simultaneously, he felt obliged to maintain a commitment to composing music. It is not hard to understand the potential conflict between these two paths. His solution was the use of I Ching chance operations while composing.

If you try to see it from this perspective, it is a simple matter to understand what chance meant to him.

From the listener's perspective, things get confused, as demonstrated by this discussion.

As for performers, I need to get personal. I have composed a lot of music using chance operations, and I find it shifts the experience from one of self-_expression_ to one of self-alteration. (John, incidentally, employed like words in this regard.)  

When guiding performers, I have found it useful to invite this same experience: rather than express yourself, just play and listen to the work as written and unwritten, and in time you will notice the change that you are producing in yourself.

Then you are there; and there is not a state, it is a never-ending process.

Now, going back to the listener's perspective, if the essential qualities of a correct performance come from a process of active and continual change in the performers, the music cannot be fixed, will never be repeated, and it is incorrect to attempt to bind it to a definition that focuses on the result.

We could, of course, rely on a definition that puts this self-altering process at the centre. Why don't we call it change music?

Andrew Culver