Scholarly discussion of the music of John Cage.

[Andrew Culver <>]

Hi Silencers:

A friend of mine has a student who zeroed in on this quote from "The Future 
of Music: Credo”:

"Any design repeated often enough on a sound track is audible. Two hundred 
and eighty circles per second on a sound track will produce one sound, 
whereas a portrait of Beethoven repeated fifty times per second on a sound 
track will have not only a different pitch but a different sound quality.”

I think the young person in question is probably blocked from getting this 
because he cannot possibly imagine what technology Cage was referring to. I’m 
experiencing a little cloudiness on that myself.

At the time this text was penned (presumably 1937), what technology was Cage 
using to make a “sound track”? Is this about making marks on film soundtrack 
strips? Optical? Magnetic?

Best to you all,

Andrew Culver