Scholarly discussion of the music of John Cage.

[Rod Stasick <>]

(2nd attempt):

Happy New Year from an arrogant academic windbag!!

(see here: http://www.euph0r1a.net/mesostomatic/)

Yup, I remember that thread. BTW: the beginning of it is here: 

https://lists.virginia.edu/sympa/arc/silence/2013-04/msg00002.html

and just press “ Thread  > “ to scroll thru it.

I may take the time to go thru that thread again,
but the mesostic discussions I remember here 
involved that thread and the “P.S.: Meso” one.
I think that this may be the updated version of 
the “…Meso” one here:

http://peregrine.awardspace.com/programs/ps/

In a nutshell:

The guy from the “mesostomatic” site closed his after I mentioned 
to him that he might want to read some more about Cage’s creation
of mesostics and make the adjustments to his software.
He became overly angry because, apparently, he had spent an
enormous amount of time creating it. IIRC, it was in someway
connected to a University degree he was striving for. My impression
was that he discovered that he was doing it incorrectly and instead
of making the changes, he got really angry with me and took it down.

On the other hand, Nicki Hoffman, who created the "P.S.: Meso” site,
did a great job, but she misunderstood Cage’s statement about picking
wing words. She was under the impression that Cage just picked any
words between the two Mesoletters and used them as wing words. 
When I pointed out that this was not the case, I believe that she went back 
to her software and updated it to the page that I offered  in the link above 
(it looks slightly different than the one that David showed in his initial post).
I haven’t used it since the upgrade, but she was very nice and understanding 
as opposed to the other person who had the tantrum. I’m hoping that it works.

I like Louis’ comment about “pruning” the wing words,
because I seem to remember John saying something similar.
The idea was to keep it to enough of a bare minimum to where it
wouldn't lose its inner essence. How that can be instituted using a
programming language may be a difficult existential question and 
might possibly be the essential reason for Cage’s “hand” method.

I believe Andrew answers questions here when he has the chance,
so we may hear from him.

Looking forward to your version David.

Rod

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