Recently i've been reading "Silence," a collection of writings and lectures of John Cage, the American avant-garde composer. Both the title and subtitle come from Cage's well-known "Lecture on Nothing," first delivered in 1950. Cage's most widely known work is 4'33'', the culmination, if not the epitome of his thought that any sound, or silence, is music. 4'33'' is his most controversial as there is no sound; only silence, hence the title of the book. As I get further through his lectures, etc. i'll give more about Cage. But for now, there's some context.
The full quotation from "Lecture on Nothing" reads:
So there you have it. A little bit of Kansas in John Cage. I don't quite know yet what the title means in the long run, but i'm giving it a shot. Titles and definitions of things are hard for me.
2 comments:
You never know when you might hear Kansas mentioned, always a surprise. It seems Kansas gets mentioned more times than not as a metaphor taking on many meanings such as centrality, plainness/simplicity, or sometimes, even heart. Of course, I am speaking of it's mention in art or literature.
I learned about John Cage several years ago in an art history class and thought, much as I did about Duchamp, "This is the end." Enter Post Modernism. Cage and Duchamp both took the liberty as artists to say, "this is art because we say it is. We could have chose to create but we decided NOT to create," which in the end was the creation. Maybe I will be criticized for this but I feel like this is where art became a joke on the patron, some art that is. Art as theory or theory as art.
While listening to John Cage mostly because of art history classes I never got to deep into his work. What John Cage did do for me though was lead to me to Brian Eno, who's album "Another Green World" got into my head as no other album has. While I have, over the years, owned quite a number Eno's soundscape albums, I always return to "Another Green World." Maybe a little "Discreet Music" if I am feeling the mood. If you have listend to Cage and ventured into Eno but haven't found "Another Green World" I think it would be worth your while. Phil Collins on drums!
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