Scholarly discussion of the music of John Cage.

[Stefano Pocci <>]

On 03.03.2016 18:42, Matthew Rogalsky wrote:

Cage was familiar with using phonograph cartridges on their own as contact microphones, going back to at least Cartridge Music (1960).

The type he would have used (pictured) has a hole with a set-screw, to place the stylus (or whatever other object).

Such cartridges can be directly connected to the microphone input of a mixer.

With David Tudor’s equipment collection there are four of this type of cartridge, mounted on an aluminum bars to keep them stable, with alligator clips to attach objects for amplification (no need to touch the set-screw) and a cable ending in a 1/4-inch jack ready to plug in to a mixer. Those could possibly be the same ones Cage used for ‘Branches’, per the description on johncage.org: "Cacti are played by plucking needles with toothpicks, amplifying their sounds via cartridge-like attachments, originally constructed by John D. Fullemann.”

best,

Matt

Hi,
as Matthew mentioned John Fullemann, I could toss my coin by sharing a brief technical description for the devices that he used to amplify the park in Montestella, Italy, 1979.

http://www.johncage.it/en/1979-montestella.html#devices

John kindly shared it with me to put it on my johncage.it site.
Hope it helps,
Stefano