Scholarly discussion of the music of John Cage.

[Rod Stasick <>]

Review of The Selected Letters of John Cage

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2016/10/27/john-cages-gift-to-us/

Still one of those kinds of reviewers who insists that Cage's philosophies
were more interesting than his music, but it's nice to see a review even if
it isn't a stupendous one. Yes, the reviewer would like to have seen some
more "context" in reference to follow-up, but these are only outgoing letters
and not incoming ones and I would have to imagine the sifting thru these
was a monumental task. 

My only complaint - and this is only because of wanting accuracy - 
is that it could've been proofread a bit more thoroughly. 
Some words were kept because they were part of the original letters 
(there's a mention of Cage's misspelling and use of the archaic
"therefor" in the introduction to the book) but you can never be sure 
whether, for example, "June 31" was really part of the original or not.
Some things are just plain wrong. The date of death for Duchamp
(I've known this exact date because he died on my 10th birthday),
a reference to "Empty Words" where what was meant was 
"A Year From Monday," inaccurate year calculations, etc.

Still, I love this book for all of the beautiful insight into the mind 
of a man that, even if you knew him well for any part of his life, 
you still couldn't have been able to delve as deeply into his psyche 
as you are able to here by reading his personal letters to a range of people 
- 
from the graduate student to the most exalted of composer/performers.   

I've bought four copies for friends so far.
I usually mention to them that while reading this book,
I am either listening to a wonderful chance-derived recording
from the "10,000 Things (The I-Ching Edition)" app 
(see here, if you're not familiar):

http://microfestrecords.com/10000-things-notes/

or reading outside amidst the ambient sound of birds, traffic and other 
silences.

Rod


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Now playing: Jerry Hunt - Chimanzzi: Link 2 "Pass #5e 3+4 Mix = Master