John Cage

Essays and posts on the music of American composer John Cage (1912-1992)

John Cage and the power of a bad performance

All composers endure bad performances of their music. It’s always demoralizing and undermines self-confidence. Some solace can be taken in the knowledge that this experience is universal: it happens to all composers, the famous and the obscure, and at all points in their careers. This point was driven home to me recently when I discovered John Cage, in conversation with Morton Feldman, describing the impact of a bad performance of his Concerto for prepared piano.

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Storytelling

I’ve said that I’m more a storyteller than a musicologist. I was reminded of this while reading Kay Larson’s new book “Where the heart beats”. Our tellings of the story of Cage’s spiritual journey aren’t that far apart.

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Prepared piano app

The John Cage Trust has released an app for iOS and Android devices. It’s a demonstration of Cage’s prepared piano and ties into the recent recording of the Sonatas and interludes released by the Trust. I found it to be the perfect audiovisual aid for a recent class on the Cage string quartet.

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John Cage and spirituality

I’ve been reading “On an overgrown path” on how spirituality could be a huge marketing opportunity for classical music. Classical music, the author proposes, should drawn on its deep spiritual heritage and sell itself as the “kind of unique life enriching experience” that it actually can be. Part of what makes me mention this here is that the author quotes John Cage’s formulation of the purpose of music: To sober and quiet the mind making it susceptible to divine influences.

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