Essays and posts on the music of American composer John Cage (1912-1992)
I’ve just posted a new essay on “The origin of John Cage’s Zen” that lays out my case for R. H. Blyth, not D. T. Suzuki, who introduced Cage to Zen. It’s a product of my recent lecture on Zen and John Cage. In preparing that, I took a deeper dive into the Blyth’s work. […]
R. H. Blyth and Cage’s introduction to Zen Read More »
The story that John Cage told was that he studied Zen with D. T. Suzuki. For Cage, as for most in the English-speaking world, Suzuki was the ultimate source of insight into Zen. “I didn’t study Zen with just anybody: I studied with Suzuki,” Cage said in an interview. “I’ve always gone, insofar as I
The origin of John Cage’s Zen Read More »
I recently had the opportunity to deliver a lecture on a subject I’ve been avoiding: Zen and the music of John Cage.
Talking about Zen and John Cage Read More »
I look more closely at Satie’s “Socrate” and Cunningham’s “Second Hand” to see how they relate to the compositional decisions that Cage made in “Cheap imitation.”
Satie, Cunningham, and the meaning of Cage’s Cheap Imitation Read More »
With John Cage’s music and its carefully planned systems, it is easy to get fixated on the mechanics of chance. But with Cage’s Cheap imitation, it’s quite apparent that chance only goes so far. Everything else in the piece was Cage’s musical choice.
Choice and style in Cage’s Cheap Imitation Read More »
With “Cheap Imitation,” Cage gave a very general description of the system used to compose it. A close reading of the piece itself—the actual results of that system—confirms the accuracy of the rules and also uncovers considerations and choices that Cage didn’t mention.
How Cage actually composed Cheap Imitation Read More »
I’ve written about John Cage’s Cheap imitation for piano several times. But it was only recently that I sat down and did a careful analysis of the piece. I looked at how Cage said he composed it; I looked at the score and compared it to Satie’s Socrate; I examined the choices that Cage made
Understanding Cheap Imitation Read More »
How did John Cage compose Cheap imitation? We are fortunate to have his own explanation of the system right in the front of the score, and I will go through this description in detail and explain my own understanding of it.
What Cage says about Cheap Imitation Read More »
I’ve spent time investigating John Cage’s Cheap imitation. In a new series of posts, I’ll document how he composed it, and also demonstrate how I go about engaging deeply with a piece like this.
Looking deeper into John Cage’s Cheap Imitation Read More »
(This text was written to accompany Mode Records CD 327 John Cage: The works for piano 11) In June of 1980, Aki Takahashi was preparing to leave Buffalo, New York. Morton Feldman, knowing her reputation as a pianist specializing in new music, had invited her to be an artist in residence at the university where
Cage, Satie, Feldman, Takahashi Read More »
