John Milton Cage Jr.
Biography
John Milton Cage Jr.
Biography
4
Introduction John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912–August 12,
Cage was also a pioneer of the prepared piano (a pia-
1992) was an American composer, music theorist, writer,
no with its sound altered by objects placed between or
and artist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, elec-
on its strings or hammers), for which he wrote numerous
troacoustic music, and non- standard use of musical
dance-related works and a few concert pieces. The best
instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of
known of these is Sonatas and Interludes (1946–48).
the post-war avant-garde. Critics have lauded him as one of the most influential American composers of the 20th
His teachers included Henry Cowell (1933) and Arnold
century. He was also instrumental in the development
Schoenberg (1933–35), both known for their radical
of modern dance, mostly through his association
innovations in music, but Cage’s major influences lay
with choreographer Merce Cunningham, who was also
in various East and South Asian cultures. Through
Cage’s romantic partner for most of their lives.
his studies of Indian philosophy and Zen Buddhism in the late 1940s, Cage came to the idea of aleatoric
Cage is perhaps best known for his 1952 composition
or chance-controlled music, which he started compos-
4′33″, which is performed in the absence of deliberate
ing in 1951. The I ching, an ancient Chinese classic text
sound; musicians who present the work do nothing aside
on changing events, became Cage’s standard compo-
from being present for the duration specified by the title.
sition tool for the rest of his life. In a 1957 lecture,
The content of the composition is not “four minutes
Experimental Music, he described music as “a purposeless
and 33 seconds of silence,” as is often assumed, but rath-
play” which is “an affirmation of life–not an attempt
er the sounds of the environment heard by the audience
to bring order out of chaos nor to suggest improvements
during performance. The work’s challenge to assumed
in creation, but simply a way of waking up to the very
definitions about musicianship and musical experience
life we’re living”.
made it a popular and controversial topic both in musicology and the broader aesthetics of art and performance.
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1 Life 1.1 1912–31: Early Years Cage was born September 5, 1912, at Good Samaritan
Cage’s first experiences with music were from private
Hospital in downtown Los Angeles. His father, John
piano teachers in the Greater Los Angeles area and sev-
Milton Cage, Sr. (1886–1964), was an inventor, and his
eral relatives, particularly his aunt Phoebe Harvey James
mother, Lucretia (“Crete”) Harvey (1885–1969), worked
who introduced him to the piano music of the 19th
intermittently as a journalist for the Los Angeles Times.
century. He received first piano lessons when he was
The family’s roots were deeply American: in a 1976 in-
in the fourth grade at school, but although he liked
terview, Cage mentioned that George Washington was
music, he expressed more interest in sight reading than
assisted by an ancestor named John Cage in the task
in developing virtuoso piano technique, and apparently
of surveying the Colony of Virginia. Cage described
was not thinking of composition. During high school,
his mother as a woman with “a sense of society” who
one of his music teachers was Fannie Charles Dillon.
was “never happy”, while his father is perhaps best
By 1928, though, Cage was convinced that he wanted
characterized by his inventions: sometimes idealistic,
to be a writer. He graduated that year from Los Angeles
such as a diesel-fueled submarine that gave off exhaust
High School as a valedictorian, having also in the spring
bubbles, the senior Cage being uninterested in an un-
given a prizewinning speech at the Hollywood Bowl
detectable submarine; others revolutionary and against
proposing a day of quiet for all Americans. “By being
the scientific norms, such as the “electrostatic field the-
hushed and silent, he said, ‘we should have the oppor-
ory” of the universe. John Milton Sr. taught his son that
tunity to hear what other people think’,” anticipating
“if someone says ‘can’t’ that shows you what to do.”
4’33” by more than thirty years.
In 1944–45 Cage wrote two small character pieces dedicated to his parents: Crete and Dad. The latter is a short
Cage enrolled at Pomona College in Claremont as a the-
lively piece that ends abruptly, while “Crete” is a slightly
ology major in 1928. Often crossing disciplines again,
longer, mostly melodic contrapuntal work.
though, he encountered at Pomona the work of artist Marcel Duchamp via professor José Pijoan, of writer
7
James Joyce via Don Sample, of philosopher Ananda
up painting, poetry and music. It was in Europe that,
Coomaraswamy and of Cowell. In 1930 he dropped
encouraged by his teacher Lazare Levy, he first heard
out, having come to believe that “college was of no
the music of contemporary composers (such as Igor
use to a writer” after an incident described in the 1991
Stravinsky and Paul Hindemith) and finally got to know
autobiographical statement:
the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, which he had not
I was shocked at college to see one hundred of my classmates in the library all reading copies of the same book. Instead of doing as they did, I went into the stacks and read the first book written by an author whose name began with Z. I received the highest grade in the class. That convinced me that the institution was not being run correctly. I left.
experienced before. After several months in Paris, Cage’s enthusiasm for America was revived after he read Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass–he wanted to return immediately, but his parents, with whom he regularly exchanged letters during the entire trip, persuaded him to stay in Europe for a little longer and explore the continent.Cage started traveling, visited various places in France, Germany and Spain, as well as Capri and, most importantly, Majorca, where
Cage persuaded his parents that a trip to Europe would
he started composing. His first compositions were cre-
be more beneficial to a future writer than college stud-
ated using dense mathematical formulas, but Cage was
ies. He subsequently hitchhiked to Galveston and sailed
displeased with the results and left the finished pieces
to Le Havre, where he took a train to Paris.Cage stayed
behind when he left. Cage’s association with theater also
in Europe for some 18 months, trying his hand at var-
started in Europe: during a walk in Seville he witnessed,
ious forms of art. First he studied Gothic and Greek
in his own words, “the multiplicity of simultaneous visual
architecture, but decided he was not interested enough
and audible events all going together in one’s experience
in architecture to dedicate his life to it. He then took
and producing enjoyment.”
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1.2
1931–36: Apprenticeship
Cage returned to the United States in 1931. He went
He supported himself financially by taking upa job wash-
to Santa Monica, California, where he made a living partly
ing walls at a Brooklyn YWCA. Cage’s routine during that
by giving small, private lectures on contemporary art. He
period was apparently very tiring, withjust four hours
got to know various important figures of the Southern
of sleep on most nights, and four hours of composi-
California art world, such as pianist Richard Buhlig (who
tion every day starting at 4 am. Several months later,
became his first teacher) and arts patron Galka Scheyer.
still in 1933, Cage became sufficiently good at com-
By 1933 Cage decided to concentrate on music rather
position to approach Schoenberg. He could not afford
than painting. “The people who heard my music had
Schoenberg’s price, and when he mentioned it, the old-
better things to say about it than the people who looked
er composer asked whether Cage would devote his life
at my paintings had to say about my paintings”, Cage lat-
to music. After Cage replied that he would, Schoenberg
er explained. In 1933 he sent some of his compositions
offered to tutor him free of charge.
to Henry Cowell; the reply was a “rather vague letter”, in which Cowell suggested that Cage study with Arnold
Cage studied with Schoenberg in California: first at USC
Schoenberg–Cage’s musical ideas at the time included
and then at UCLA, as well as privately. The older com-
composition based on a 25-tone row, somewhat simi-
poser became one of the biggest influences on Cage,
lar to Schoenberg’s twelve-tone technique. Cowell also
who “literally worshipped him”, particularly as an exam-
advised that, before approaching Schoenberg, Cage
ple of how to live one’s life being a composer.The vow
should take some preliminary lessons, and recommend-
Cage gave, to dedicate his life to music, was apparently
ed Adolph Weiss, a former Schoenberg pupil.
still important some 40 years later, when Cage “had no need for it [i.e. writing music]”, he continued compos-
Following Cowell’s advice, Cage travelled to New York
ing partly because of the promise he gave. Schoenberg’s
City in 1933 and started studying with Weiss as well
methods and their influence on Cage are well document-
as taking lessons from Cowell himself at The NewSchool.
ed by Cage himself in various lectures and writings.
9
Particularly well-known is the conversation mentioned
initially said that none of his American pupils were in-
in the 1958 lecture Indeterminacy:
teresting, he further stated in reference to Cage: “There
After I had been studying with him for two years, Schoenberg said, “In order to write music, you must have a feeling for harmony.” I explained to him that I had no feeling for harmony. He then said that I would always encounter an obstacle, that it would be as though I came to a wall through which I could not pass. I said, ‘In that case I will devote my life to beating my head against that wall.’
1.3 1937–49: Modern dance and Eastern influences 3 was one...of course he’s not a composer, but he’s an inventor–of genius.” Schoenberg had intended this not as a compliment but as means to differentiate, disparagingly, between composers and inventors. Cage would later adopt the “inventor” moniker and deny that he was in fact a composer. In 1934–35, during studies with Schoenberg, Cage was working at his mother’s arts and crafts shop, where he met artist Xenia Andreyevna Kashevaroff. She was
Cage studied with Schoenberg for two years, but al-
a daughter of a Russian priest; her work encompassed
though he admired his teacher, he decided to leave after
fine bookbinding, sculpture and collage. Although
Schoenberg told the assembled students that he was
Cage was involved in relationships with Don Sample
trying to make it impossible for them to write music.
and with Rudolph Schindler’s wife Pauline when he met
Much later, Cage recounted the incident: “[...] When
Xenia, he fell in love immediately. Cage and Xenia were
he said that, I revolted, not against him, but against
married in the desert at Yuma, Arizona, on June 7, 1935.
what he had said. I determined then and there, more than everbefore, to write music.” Although Schoenberg was not impressed with Cage’s compositional abilities during these two years, in a later interview, where he
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1.3
1937–49: Modern dance and Eastern Influences
The newly married couple first lived with Cage’s par-
and moved to Seattle, Washington, where he found work
ents in Pacific Palisades, then moved to Hollywood.
as composer and accompanist for choreographer Bonnie
During 1936–38 Cage changed numerous jobs, includ-
Bird at the Cornish College of the Arts. The Cornish
ing one that started his lifelong association with modern
School years proved to be a particularly important pe-
dance: dance accompanist at UCLA. He produced mu-
riod in Cage’s life. Aside from teaching and working
sic for choreographies and at one point taught a course
as accompanist, Cage organized a percussion ensemble
on “Musical Accompaniments for Rhythmic Expression”
that toured the West Coast and brought the compos-
at UCLA, with his aunt Phoebe. It was during that time
er his first fame. His reputation was enhanced further
that Cage first started experimenting with unorthodox
with the invention of the prepared piano–a piano which
instruments, such as household items, metal sheets,
has had its sound altered by objects placed on, beneath
and so on. This was inspired by Oskar Fischinger, who
or between the strings–in 1940. This concept was orig-
told Cage that “everything in the world has a spirit that
inally intended for a performance staged in a room too
can be released through its sound.” Although Cage
small to include a full percussion ensemble. It was also
did not share the idea of spirits, these words inspired
at the Cornish School that Cage met a number of peo-
him to begin exploring the sounds produced by hitting
ple who became lifelong friends, such as painter Mark
variousnon-musical objects.
Tobey anddancer Merce Cunningham. The latter was to becomeCage’s lifelong partner and collaborator.
In 1938, with help from a fellow Cowell student Lou Harrison, Cage became a faculty member at Mills College,
Cage left Seattle in the summer of 1941 after the painter
teaching the same program as at UCLA, and collaborat-
László Moholy-Nagy invited him to teach at the Chicago
ing with choreographer Marian van Tuyl. Several famous
School of Design (what later became the IIT Institute
dance groups were present, and Cage’s interest in mod-
of Design. The composer accepted partly because he
ern dance grew further. After several months he left
hoped to find opportunities in Chicago, that were not
11
available in Seattle, to organize a center for experimen-
successful MoMA concert, Cage was left homeless, un-
tal music. These opportunities did not materialize. Cage
employed and penniless. The commissions he hoped
taught at the Chicago School of Design and worked as ac-
for did not happen. He and Xenia spent the summer
companist and composer at the University of Chicago.
of 1942 with dancer Jean Erdman and her husband.
At one point, his reputation as percussion composer land-
Without the percussion instruments, Cage again turned
ed him a commission from the Columbia Broadcasting
to prepared piano, producing a substantial body of works
System to compose a soundtrack for a radio play
for performances by various choreographers, including
by Kenneth Patchen. The result, The City Wears a Slouch
Merce Cunningham, who moved to New York City
Hat, was received well, and Cage deduced that more im-
several years earlier. Cage and Cunningham eventual-
portant commissions would follow. Hoping to find these,
ly became romantically involved, and Cage’s marriage,
he left Chicagofor New York City in the spring of 1942.
already breaking up during the early 1940s, ended in di-
In New York, the Cages first stayed with painter Max
vorce in 1945. Cunningham remained Cage’s partner
Ernst and Peggy Guggenheim. Through them, Cage met
for the rest of his life. Cage also countered the lack
numerous important artists such as Piet Mondrian, André
of percussion instruments by writing, on one occa-
Breton, Jackson Pollock, Marcel Duchamp, and many
sion, for voice and closed piano: the resulting piece,
others. Guggenheim was very supportive: the Cages
The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs (1942), quickly
could stay with her and Ernst for any length of time,
became popular and was performed by the celebrated
and she offered to organize a concert of Cage’s music
duo of Cathy Berberian and Luciano Berio.
at the opening of her gallery, which included paying for transportation of Cage’s percussion instruments from Chicago. After she learned that Cage secured another concert, at the Museum of Modern Art, Guggenheim withdrew all support, and, even after the ultimately
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Like his personal life, Cage’s artistic life went through a crisis in mid-1940s. The composer was experiencing a growing disillusionment with the idea of music as means of communication: the public rarely accepted his work, and Cage himself, too, had trouble understanding the music of his colleagues. In early 1946 Cage agreed to tutor Gita Sarabhai, an Indian musician who came to the US to study Western music. In return, he asked her to teach him about Indian music and philosophy. Cage also attended, in late 1940s and early 1950s, D. T. Suzuki’s lectures on Zen Buddhism, and read further the works of Coomaraswamy. The first fruits of these studies were works inspired by Indian concepts: Sonatas and Interludes for prepared piano, String Quartet in Four Parts, and others. Cage accepted the goal of music as explained to him by Sarabhai: “to sober and quiet the mind, thus rendering it susceptible to divine influences”. Early in 1946, his former teacher Richard Buhlig arranged for Cage to meet Berlin-born pianist Grete Sultan, who had escaped from Nazi persecution to New York in 1941. They became close, lifelong friends, and Cage later dedicated part of his Music for Piano (Cage) and his monumental piano cycle Etvudes Australes to her.
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14
1.4
1950s: Discovering chance
Sonatas and Interludes were received well by the public.
Kurt Wolff of Pantheon Books in 1950. The I ching
After a 1949 performance at Carnegie Hall, New York,
is commonly used for divination, but for Cage it be-
Cage received a grant from the Guggenheim Foundation,
came a tool to compose using chance. To compose
which enabled him to make a trip to Europe, where he
a piece of music, Cage would come up with questions
met composers such as Olivier Messiaen and Pierre
to ask the I ching; the book would then be used in much
Boulez. More important was Cage’s chance encounter
the same way as it is used for divination. For Cage, this
with Morton Feldman in New York City in early 1950.
meant “imitating nature in its manner of operation”:
Both composers attended a New York Philharmonic
his lifelong interest in sound itself culminated in an ap-
Orchestra concert, where the orchestra performed
proach that yielded works in which sounds were free
Anton Webern’s Symphony, op. 21, followed by a piece
from the composer’s will:
by Sergei Rachmaninoff. Cage felt so overwhelmed by Webern’s piece that he left before the Rachmaninoff; and in the lobby, he met Feldman, who was leaving for the same reason. The two composers quickly became friends; some time later Cage, Feldman, Earle Brown, David Tudor and Cage’s pupil Christian Wolff came to be referred to as “the New York school.” In early 1951, Wolff presented Cage with a copy of the I ching–a Chinese classic text which describes
When I hear what we call music, it seemsto me that someone is talking. And talkingabout his feelings, or about his ideas of relationships. But when I hear traffic, the sound of traffic–here on Sixth Avenue, for instance–Idon’t have the feeling that anyone is talking. I have the feeling that sound is acting. And I lovethe activity of sound [...] I don’t need sound to talk to me.
a symbol system used to identify order in chance events.
Although Cage had used chance on a few earlier occa-
This version of the I ching was the first complete English
sions, most notably in the third movement of Concerto
translation and had been published by Wolff ’s father,
for Prepared Piano and Chamber Orchestra (1950–51),
15
the I ching opened new possibilities in this field for him.
mammoth project–the Williams Mix, a piece of tape
The first results of the new approach were Imaginary
music, which Earle Brown helped to put together. Also
Landscape No. 4 for 12 radio receivers, and Music of changes
in 1952, Cage composed the piece that became his best-
for piano. The latter work was written for David Tudor,
known and most controversial creation: 4′33″. The score
whom Cage met through Feldman–another friendship
instructs the performer not to play the instrument during
that lasted until Cage’s death. Tudor premiered most
the entire duration of the piece–four minutes, thirty-
of Cage’s works until the early 1960s, when he stopped
three seconds–and is meant to be perceived as consisting
performing on the piano and concentrated on elec-
of the sounds of the environment that the listeners
tronic music. The I ching became Cage’s standard tool
hear while it is performed. Cage conceived “a silent
for composition: he used it in practically every work
piece” years earlier, but was reluctant to write it down;
composed after 1951.
and indeed, the premiere (given by Tudor on August 29, 1952 at Woodstock, New York) caused an uproar
Despite the fame Sonatas and Interludes earned him,
in the audience. The reaction to 4′33″ was just a part
and the connections he cultivated with American
of the larger picture: on the whole, it was the adoption
and European composers and musicians, Cage was quite
of chance procedures that had disastrous consequences
poor. Although he still had an apartment, at 326 Monroe
for Cage’s reputation. The press, which used to react
Street (which he occupied since around 1946) his financial
favorably to earlier percussion and prepared piano
situation in 1951 worsened so much that, while working
music, ignored his new works, and many valuable friend-
on Music of changes, he prepared a set of instructions
ships and connections were lost. Pierre Boulez, who
for Tudor as to how to complete the piece in the event
used to promote Cage’s work in Europe, was opposed
of his death. Nevertheless, Cage managed to survive
to Cage’s use of chance, and so were other composers
and maintained an active artistic life, giving lectures,
who came to prominence during the 1950s, e.g. Karlheinz
performances, etc. In 1952–53 he completed another
Stockhausen and Iannis Xenakis.
16
During this time Cage was teaching at the avant–garde
he referred to as The Ten Thousand Things. In Summer
Black Mountain College just outside of Asheville, NC.
1954 he moved out of New York and settled in a coop-
Cage taught at the college in the summers of 1948
erative community in Stony Point, New York, where his
and 1952 and was in residence the summer of 1953.
neighbors included David Tudor, M. C. Richards, Karen
While at Black Mountain College in 1952, he organized
Karnes, Stan VanDerBeek, and Sari Dienes. The com-
what has been called the first “happening” in the United
poser’s financial situation gradually improved: in late 1954
States, later titled Theatre Piece No. 1, a multi-layered,
he and Tudor were able to embark on a European tour.
multi-media performance event staged the day as Cage
From 1956 to 1961 Cage taught classes in experimental
conceived it that “that would greatly influence 1950s
composition at The New School, and during 1956–58
and 60s artistic practices.” The many participants
he also worked as an art director and designer of ty-
included besides Cage, Cunningham and Tudor.
pography. Among the works completed during the last
From 1953 onward, Cage was busy composing music
years of the decade were Concert for Piano and Orchestra
for modern dance, particularly Cunningham’s dances
(1957–58), a seminal work in the history of graphic
(Cage’s partner adopted chance too, out of fascination
notation, and Variations I (1958).
for the movement of the human body), as well as developing new methods of using chance, in a series of works
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18
1.5
1960s: Fame
Cage was affiliated with Wesleyan University and col-
Edition Peters soon published a large number of scores
laborated with members of its Music Department from
by Cage, and this, together with the publication of Silence,
the 1950s until his death in 1992. At the University,
led to much higher prominence for the composer than
the philosopher, poet, and professor of classics Norman
ever before–one of the positive consequences of this
O. Brown befriended Cage, an association that proved
was that in 1965 Betty Freeman set up an annual grant
fruitful to both. In 1960 the composer was appointed
for living expenses for Cage, to be issued from 1965 to his
a Fellow on the faculty of the Center for Advanced
death. By the mid-1960s, Cage was receiving so many
Studies (now the Center for Humanities) in the Liberal
commissions and requests for appearances that he was
Arts and Sciences at Wesleyan, where he started teaching
unable to fulfill them. This was accompanied by a busy
classes in experimental music. In October of 1961,
touring schedule; subsequently Cage’s compositional
Wesleyan University Press published Silence, a collec-
output from that decade was scant. After the orchestral
tion of Cage’s lectures and writings on a wide variety
Atlas Eclipticalis (1961–62), a work based on star charts,
of subjects, including the famous Lecture on Nothing
which was fully notated, Cage gradually shifted to, in his
that was composed using a complex time length scheme,
own words, “music (not composition).” The score
much like some of Cage’s music. Silence was Cage’s first
of 0′00″, completed in 1962, originally comprised a single
book. He went on to publish five more. Silence remained
sentence: “In a situation provided with maximum ampli-
his most widely readand influential book. In the early
fication, perform a disciplined action”, and in the first
1960s Cage began his lifelong association with C.F.
performance the disciplined action was Cage writing
Peters Corporation. Walter Hinrichsen, the president
the sentence. The score of Variations III (1962) abounds
of the corporation, offered Cage an exclusive contract
in instructions to the performers, but makes no references
and instigated the publication of a catalog of Cage’s
to music, musical instruments or sounds.
works, which appeared in 1962.
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Many of the Variations and other 1960s pieces were
hunt with George Segal and invited him to join his
in fact “happenings”, an art form established by Cage
class. In following these developments John Cage was
and his students in late 1950s. Cage’s “Experimental
strongly influenced by Antonin Artaud’s seminal treatise
Composition” classes at The New School have become
The Theatre and Its Double, and the happenings of this
legendary as an American source of Fluxus, an inter-
period can be viewed as a forerunner to the ensuing
national network of artists, composers, and designers.
Fluxus movement. In October 1960, Studio of Mary
The majority of his students had little or no background
Bauermeister Cologne hosted a joint concert by Cage
in music. Most were artists. They included Jackson Mac
and the video artist Nam June Paik, who in the course
Low, Allan Kaprow, Al Hansen, George Brecht, and Dick
of his Etude for Piano cut off Cage’s tie and then washed
Higgins, as well as many others Cage invited unofficial-
his co-performer’s hair with shampoo.
ly. Famous pieces that resulted from the classes include George Brecht’s Time Table Music and Al Hansen’s Alice
In 1967, Cage’s A Year from Monday was first published
Denham in 48 Seconds. As set forth by Cage, happen-
by Wesleyan University Press. Cage’s parents died during
ings were theatrical events that abandon the traditional
the decade: his father in 1964, and his mother in 1969.
concept of stage-audience and occur without a sense
Cage had their ashes scattered in Ramapo Mountains,
of definite duration. Instead, they are left to chance. They
near Stony Point, and asked for the same to be done
have a minimal script, with no plot. In fact, a “happening”
to him after his death.
is so-named because it occurs in the present, attempting to arrest the concept of passing time. Cage believed that theater was the closest route to integrating art and real life. The term “happenings” was coined by Allan Kaprow, one of his students, who defined it as a genre in the late fifties. Cage met Kaprow while on a mushroom
20
1.6
1969–87: New departures
Cage’s work from the sixties features some of most
and, as both listeners and Cage himself noted, open-
ambitious, not to mention socially utopian pieces, re-
ly sympathetic to its source. Although Cage’s affection
flecting the mood of the era yet also his absorption
for Satie’s music was well-known, it was highly unusu-
of the writings of both Marshall McLuhan, on the effects
al for him to compose a personal work, one in which
of new media, and R. Buckminster Fuller, on the power
the composer is present. When asked about this appar-
of technology to promote social change. HPSCHD
ent contradiction, Cage replied: “Obviously, Cheap
(1969), a gargantuan and long-running multimedia work
Imitation lies outside of what may seem necessary in my
made in collaboration with Lejaren Hiller, incorporat-
work in general, and that’s disturbing. I’m the first
ed the mass superimposition of seven harpsichords
to be disturbed by it.” Cage’s fondness for the piece
playing chance-determined excerpts from the works
resulted in a recording–a rare occurrence, since Cage
of Cage, Hiller, and a potted history of canonical classics,
disliked making recordings of his music–made in 1976.
with fifty-two tapes of computer-generated sounds, 6,400
Overall, Cheap Imitation marked a major change in Cage’s
slides of designs, many supplied by NASA, and shown
music: he turned again to writing fully notated works
from sixty-four slide projectors, with forty motion-pic-
for traditional instruments, and tried out several new
ture films. The piece was initially rendered in a five-hour
approaches, such as improvisation, which he previ-
performance at the University of Illinois in 1969,
ously discouraged, but was able to use in works from
in which the audience arrived after the piece hadbegun
the 1970s, such as Child of Tree (1975).
and left before it ended, wandering freely around the auditorium in the time for which they were there.
Cheap Imitation became the last work Cage performed in public himself. Arthritis had troubled Cage since 1960,
Also in 1969, Cage produced the first fully notat-
and by the early 1970s his hands were painfully swollen
ed work in years: Cheap Imitation for piano. The piece
and rendered him unable to perform.
is a chance-controlled reworking of Erik Satie’s Socrate,
21
Nevertheless, he still played Cheap Imitation during the 1970s, before finally having to give up performing. Preparing manuscripts also became difficult: before, published versions of pieces were done in Cage’s calligraphic script; now, manuscripts for publication had to be completed by assistants. Matters were complicated further by David Tudor’s departure from performing, which happened in early 1970s. Tudor decided to concentrate on composition instead, and so Cage, for the first time in two decades, had to start relying on commissions from other performers, and their respective abilities. Such performers included Grete Sultan, Paul Zukofsky, Margaret Leng Tan, and many others. Aside from music, Cage continued writing books of prose and poetry (mesostics). M was first published by Wesleyan University Press in 1973. In January 1978 Cage was invited by Kathan Brown of Crown Point Press to engage in printmaking, and Cage would go on to produce series of prints every year until his death; these, together with some late watercolors, constitute the largest portion of his extant visual art. In 1979 Cage’s Empty Words was first published by Wesleyan University Press.
22
1.7
1987–92: Final years and death
In 1987, Cage completed a piece called Two, for flute
Already in the course of the eighties, Cage’s health
and piano, dedicated to performers Roberto Fabbriciani
worsened progressively: he suffered not only from ar-
and Carlo Neri. The title referred to the number of per-
thritis, but also from sciatica and arteriosclerosis. He
formers needed; the music consisted of short notated
suffered a stroke that left the movement of his left
fragments to be played at any tempo within the indicat-
leg restricted, and, in 1985, broke an arm. During this
ed time constraints. Cage went on to write some forty
time, Cage pursued a macrobiotic diet.Nevertheless,
such pieces, one of the last being Eighty (1992, premiered
ever since arthritis started plaguing him, the composer
in Munich on 28 October 2011), usually employing
was aware of his age, and, as biographer David Revill
a variant of the same technique; together, these works
observed, “the fire which he began to incorporate in his
are known as Number Pieces. The process of composi-
visual work in 1985 is not only the fire he has set aside
tion, in many of the later Number Pieces, was simple
for so long–the fire of passion–but also fire as tran-
selection of pitch range and pitches from that range,
sitoriness and fragility.” On August 11, 1992, while
using chance procedures; the music has been linked
preparing evening tea for himself and Cunningham,
to Cage’s anarchic leanings. One (i.e. the eleventh piece
Cage suffered another stroke. He was taken to the nearest
for a single performer), completed in early 1992, was
hospital, where he died on the morning of August 12.
Cage’s first and only foray into film. Another new direction, also taken in 1987, was opera Cage produced five operas, all sharing the same title Europera, in 1987–91. Europeras I and II require greater forces than III, IV and V, which are on a chamber scale.
23
According to his wishes, Cage’s body was cremated, and the ashes scattered in the Ramapo Mountains, near Stony Point, New York, the same place where Cage scattered the ashes of his parents, years before. The composer’s death occurred only weeks before a celebration of his 80th birthday organized in Frankfurt by the composer Walter Zimmermann and the musicologist Stefan Schaedler was due to take place. The event went ahead as planned, including a performance of the Concert for Piano and Orchestra by David Tudor and Ensemble Modern. Merce Cunningham lived another 17 years, dying of natural causes in July 2009.
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2 Music 2.1 Early works, rhythmic structure, and new approaches to harmony Cage’s first completed pieces are currently lost. According
the foreground. In Imaginary Landscape No. 1 (1939)
to the composer, the earliest works were very short pieces
there are four large sections of 16, 17, 18, and 19 bars,
for piano, composed using complex mathematical pro-
and each section is divided into four subsections, the first
cedures and lacking in “sensual appeal and expressive
three of which were all 5 bars long. First Construction
power.” Cage then started producing pieces by impro-
(in Metal) (1939) expands on the concept: there are five
vising and writing down the results, until Richard Buhlig
sections of 4, 3, 2, 3, and 4 units respectively. Each
stressed to him the importance of structure. Most works
unit contains 16 bars, and is divided the same way: 4
from the early 1930s, such as Sonata for Clarinet (1933)
bars, 3 bars, 2 bars, etc. Finally, the musical content
and Composition for 3 Voices (1934), are highly chromat-
of the piece is based on sixteen motives. Such “nested
ic and betray Cage’s interest in counterpoint. Around
proportions”, as Cage called them, became a regular
the same time, the composer also developed a type
feature of his music throughout the 1940s. The technique
of a tone row technique with 25-note rows. After stud-
was elevated to great complexity in later pieces such
ies with Schoenberg, who never taught dodecaphony
as Sonatas and Interludes for prepared piano (1946–48),
to his students, Cage developed another tone row tech-
in which many proportions used non-integer numbers
nique, in which the row was split into short motives,
(1¼, ¾, 1¼, ¾, 1½, and 1½ for Sonata I, for example),
which would then be repeated and transposed according
or A Flower, a song for voice and closed piano, in which
to a set of rules. This approach was first used in Two Pieces
two sets of proportions are used simultaneously.
for Piano (c. 1935), and then, with modifications, in larger works such as Metamorphosis and Five Songs (both 1938).
In late 1940s, Cage started developing further methods of breaking away with traditional harmony. For instance,
Soon after Cage started writing percussion music
in String Quartet in Four Parts (1950) Cage first composed
and music for modern dance, he started using a technique
a number of gamuts: chords with fixed instrumenta-
that placed the rhythmic structure of the piece into
tion. The piece progresses from one gamut to another.
25
In each instance the gamut was selected only based on whether it contains the note necessary for the melody, and so the rest of the notes do not form any directional harmony. Concerto for prepared piano (1950–51) used a system of charts of durations, dynamics, melodies, etc., from which Cage would choose using simple geometric patterns. The last movement of the concerto was a step towards using chance procedures, which Cage adopted soon afterwards.
26
2.2 Chance A chart system was also used (along with nested propor-
Another series of works applied chance procedures
tions) for the large piano work Music of changes (1951),
to per-existing music by other composers: Cheap Imitation
only here material would be selected from the charts
(1969; based on Erik Satie), Some of “The Harmony
by using the I ching. All of Cage’s music since 1951 was
of Maine” (1978; based on Belcher), and Hymns
composed using chance procedures, most commonly
and Variations (1979). In these works, Cage would
using the I ching. For example, works from Music for Piano
borrow therhythmic structure of the originals and fill
were based on paper imperfections: the imperfections
it with pitches determined through chance procedures,
themselves provided pitches, coin tosses and I ching
or just replace some of the originals’ pitches. Yet another
hexagram numbers were used to determine the acciden-
series of works, the so-called Number Pieces, all complet-
tals, clefs, and playing techniques. A whole series of works
ed during the last five years of the composer’s life, make
was created by applying chance operations, i.e. the I ching,
use of time brackets: the score consists of short fragments
to star charts: Atlas Eclipticalis (1961–62), and a series
with indications of when to start and to end them (e.g.
of etudes: Etudes Australes (1974–75), Freeman Etudes
from anywhere between 1′15″ and 1′45″, and to anywhere
(1977–90), and Etudes Boreales (1978). Cage’s etudes
from 2′00″ to 2′30″).
are all extremely difficult to perform, a characteristic dictated by Cage’s social and political views: the difficul-
Cage’s method of using the I ching was far from simple
ty would ensure that “a performance would show that
randomization. The procedures varied from composition
the impossible is not impossible”–this being Cage’s
to composition, and were usually complex. For exam-
answer to the notion that solving the world’s politi-
ple, in the case of Cheap Imitation, the exact questions
cal and social problems is impossible. Cage described
asked to the I ching were these:
himself as an anarchist, and was influenced by Henry David Thoreau.
1. Which of the twelve possible chromatic transpositions am I using?
27
2. Which of the seven modes, if we take
with six transparent squares, one with points of various
as modes the seven cales beginning on white
sizes, five with five intersecting lines. The performer
notes and remaining on white notes, which
combines the squares and uses lines and points as a coor-
of those am I using?
dinate system, in which the lines are axes of various
3. For this phrase for which this transposition of this mode will apply, which note am I using of the seven to imitate the note that Satie wrote?
characteristics of the sounds, such as lowest frequency, simplest overtone structure, etc. Some of Cage’s graphic scores (e.g. Concert for Piano and Orchestra, Fontana Mix (both 1958)) present the performer with similar difficulties. Still other works from the same period consist
In another example of late music by John Cage, Etudes
just of text instructions. The score of 0’00” (1962; also
Australes, the compositional procedure involved placing
known as 4’33” No. 2) consists of a single sentence:
a transparent strip on the star chart, identifying the pitch-
“In a situation provided with maximum amplification,
es from the chart, transferring them to paper, then asking
perform a disciplined action.” The first performance
the I ching which of these pitches were to remain single,
had Cage write that sentence.
and which should become parts of aggregates (chords), and the aggregates were selected from a table of some
Musicircus (1967) simply invites the performers to as-
550 possible aggregates, compiled beforehand.
semble and play together. The first Musicircus featured multiple performers and groups in a large space who were
Finally, some of Cage’s works, particularly those
all to commence and stop playing at two particular time
completed during the 1960s, feature instructions
periods, with instructions on when to play individually
to the performer, rather than fully notated music.
or in groups within these two periods. The result was
The score of Variations I (1958) presents the performer
a mass superimposition of many different musics on top
28
of one another as determined by chance distribution, producing an event with a specifically theatric feel. Many Musicircuses have subsequently been held, and continue to occur even after Cage’s death. The English National Opera. became the first opera company to hold a Cage Musicircus on 3 March 2012 at the London Coliseum. The ENO’s Musicircus featured artists including Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones and composer Michael Finnissy alongside ENO Music Director Edward Gardner, the ENO Community Choir, ENO Opera Works singers, and a collective of professional and amateur talents performing in the bars and front of house at London’s Coliseum Opera House. This concept of circus was to remain important to Cage throughout his life and featured strongly in such pieces as Roaratorio, an Irish circus on Finnegans Wake (1979), a many-tiered rendering in sound of both his text Writing for the Second Time Through Finnegans Wake, and traditional musical and field recordings made around Ireland. The piece was based on James Joyce’s famous novel, Finnegans Wake, which was one of Cage’s favorite books, and one from which he derived texts for several more of his works.
29
2.3
Improvisation
Since chance procedures were used by Cage to eliminate the composer’s and the performer’s likes and dislikes from music, Cage disliked the concept of improvisation, which is inevitably linked to the performer’s preferences. In a number of works beginning in the 1970s, he found ways to incorporate improvisation. In Child of Tree (1975) and Branches (1976) the performers are asked to use certain species of plants as instruments, for example the cactus. The structure of the pieces is determined through the chance of their choices, as is the musical output; the performers had no knowledge of the instruments. In Inlets (1977) the performers play large water-filled conch shells–by carefully tipping the shell several times, it is possible to achieve a bubble forming inside, which produced sound. Yet, as it is impossible to predict when this would happen, the performers had to continue tipping the shells–as a result the performance was dictated by pure chance.
30
3
Visual art, writings, and other activities
Although Cage started painting in his youth, he gave it up
These were the last works in which he used engraving.
in order to concentrate on music instead. His first mature
In 1983 he started using various unconventional materials
visual project, Not Wanting to Say Anything About Marcel,
such as cotton batting, foam, etc., and then used stones
dates from 1969. The work comprises two lithographs
and fire (Eninka, Variations, Ryoanji, etc.) to create his
and a group of what Cage called plexigrams: silk screen
visual works. In 1988–1990 he produced watercolors
printing on plexiglas panels. The panels and the litho-
at the Mountain Lake Workshop.
graphs all consist of bits and pieces of words in different typefaces, all governed by chance operations.
The only film Cage produced was one of the Number Pieces, One, commissioned by composer and film direc-
From 1978 to his death Cage worked at Crown Point
tor Henning Lohner who worked with Cage to produce
Press, producing series of prints every year. The earliest
and direct the 90-minute monochrome film. It was
project completed there was the etching Score Without Parts
completed only weeks before his death in 1992. One
(1978), created from fully notated instructions, and based
consists entirely of images of chance-determined play
on various combinations of drawings by Henry David
of electric light. It premiered in Cologne, Germany,
Thoreau. This was followed, the same year, by Seven Day
on September 19, 1992, accompanied by the live perfor-
Diary, which Cage drew with his eyes closed, but which
mance of the orchestra piece 103.
conformed to a strict structure developed using chance operations. Finally, Thoreau’s drawings informed the last works produced in 1978, Signals. Between 1979 and 1982 Cage produced a number of large series of prints: Changes and Disappearances (1979–80), On the Surface (1980–82), and Déreau (1982).
31
Throughout his adult life, Cage was also active as lecturer and writer. Some of his lectures were included in several books he published, the first of which was Silence: Lectures and Writings (1961). Silence included not only simple lectures, but also texts executed in experimental layouts, and works such as Lecture on Nothing (1949), which were composed in rhythmic structures. Subsequent books also featured different types of content, from lectures on music to poetry–Cage’s mesostics. Cage was also an avid amateur mycologist: he cofouned the New York Mycological Society with four friends, and his mycology collection is presently housed by the Special Collections department of the McHenry Library at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
32
4.
Reception and influence
Cage’s pieces from the late 1940s such as Sonatas
parture seems to have been made is perfectly
and Interludes, earned critical acclaim: the Sonatas were
symbolized in John Cage’s account of a public
performed at Carnegie Hall in 1949. Cage’s adop-
lecture he had given: “Later, during the question
tion of chance operations in 1951 cost him a number
period, I gave one of six previously prepared
of friendships and led to numerous criticisms from fellow
answers regardless of the question asked. This
composers. Adherents of serialism such as Pierre Boulez
was a reflection of my engagement in Zen.”
and Karlheinz Stockhausen dismissed indeterminate
While Mr. Cage’s famous silent piece [i.e. 4′33″],
music; Boulez, criticized him for “adoption of a philoso-
or his Landscapes for a dozen radio receivers may
phy tinged with Orientalism that masks a basic weakness
be of little interest as music, they are of enor-
in compositional technique.” Prominent critics of serial-
mous importance historically as representing
ism, such as the Greek composer Iannis Xenakis, were
the complete abdication of the artist’s power.
similarly hostile towards Cage: for Xenakis, the adoption of chance in music was “an abuse of language and [...] an abrogation of a composer’s function.” An article by Michael Steinberg, Tradition and Responsibility, criticized avant-garde music in general:
Cage’s aesthetic position was criticized by, among others, prominent writer and critic Douglas Kahn. In his 1999 book Noise, Water, Meat: A History of Sound in the Arts, Kahn acknowledged the influence Cage had on culture, but noted that “one of the central effects of Cage’s battery of silencing techniques was a silencing of the social.”
The rise of music that is totally without social commitment also increases the separation
While much of Cage’s work remains controver-
between composer and public, and represents
sial, his influence on countless composers, artists,
still another form of departure from tradition.
and writers is notable. After Cage introduced chance,
The cynicism with which this particular de-
Boulez, Stockhausen, and Xenakis remained critical,
33
yet all adopted chance procedures in some of their
Cage’s influence was also acknowledged by rock acts such
works (although in a much more restricted manner);
as Sonic Youth (who performed some of the Number
and Stockhausen’s piano writing in his later Klavierstücke
Pieces) and Stereolab (who named a song after Cage),
was influenced by Cage’s Music of Changes and David
composer and rock and jazz guitarist Frank Zappa,
Tudor. Other composers who adopted chance pro-
and various noise music artists and bands: indeed,
cedures in their works included Witold Lutosławski,
one writer traced the origin of noise music to 4′33″.
Mauricio Kagel, and many others. Music in which some
The development of electronic music was also influ-
of the composition and/or performance is left to chance
enced by Cage: in the mid-1970s Brian Eno’s label
was labelled aleatoric music–a term popularized by Pierre
Obscure Records released works by Cage. Prepared pia-
Boulez. Helmut Lachenmann’s work was influenced
no, which Cage popularized, is featured heavily on Aphex
by Cage’s work with extended techniques.
Twin’s 2001 album Drukqs. Cage’s work as musicologist helped popularize Erik Satie’s music, and his friend-
Cage’s rhythmic structure experiments influenced a num-
ship with Abstract expressionist artists such as Robert
ber of composers, starting at first with his close American
Rauschenberg helped introduce his ideas into visual art.
associates Earle Brown, Morton Feldman, and Christian
Cage’s ideas also found their way into sound design:
Wolff (and other American composers, such as La Monte
for example, Academy Awardwinning sound designer
Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass),
Gary Rydstrom cited Cage’s work as a major influence.
and then spreading to Europe. For example, almost
Radiohead undertook acomposing and performing col-
all composers of the English experimental school ac-
laboration with Cunningham’s dance troupe in 2003
knowledge his influence: Michael Parsons, Christopher
because the music-group’sleader Thom Yorke consid-
Hobbs, John White, Gavin Bryars, who studied under
ered Cage one of his “all-time art heroes”.
Cage briefly, and Howard Skempton. The Japanese composer Tōru Takemitsu has also cited Cage’s influence.
34
4.1
Centenary commemoration
In 2012, amongst a wide range of American and inter-
In an homage to Cage’s dance work, the Bill T. Jones/
national centennial celebrations, an 8-day festival was
Arnie Zane Dance Company in July 2012 “performed
held in Washington DC, with venues found notably
an engrossing piece called ‘Story/Time’. It was mod-
more amongst the city’s art museums and universities
eled on Cage’s 1958 work ‘Indeterminacy’, in which
than performance spaces. Earlier in the centennial year,
[Cage and then Jones, respectively,] sat alone onstage,
conductor Michael Tilson Thomas presented Cage’s
reading aloud series of one-minute stories [they]’d
“Song Books” with the San Francisco Symphony
written. Dancers from Jones’s company performed
at Carnegie Hall in New York. Another celebration
as [Jones] read.”
came, for instance, in Darmstadt, Germany, which in July 2012 renamed its central station the John Cage Railway Station during the term of its annual new-music courses. Jacaranda has four concerts planned in Santa Monica, CA for the centennial week. John Cage Day was the name given to several events held during 2012 to mark the centenary of his birth. A 2012 project was curated by Juraj Kojs to celebrate the centenary of Cage’s birth, titled On Silence: Homage to Cage. It consisted of 13 commissioned works created by composers from around the global such as Kasia Glowicka, Adrian Knight and Henry Vega, each being 4 minutes and 33 seconds long in honor of Cage’s infamous 1952 opus, 4’33”.
35
5 Archives The archive of the John Cage Trust is held at Bard College in upstate New York. The John Cage Music Manuscript Collection held by the Music Division of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts contains mostof the composer’s musical manuscripts, including sketches, worksheets, realizations, and unfinished works. The John Cage Papers are held in the Special collections and Archives department of Wesleyan University’s Olin Library in Middletown, Connecticut. They contain manuscripts, interviews, fan mail, and ephemera. Other material includes clippings, gallery and exhibition catalogs, a collection of Cage’s books and serials, posters, objects, exhibition and literary announcement postcards, and brochures from conferences and other organizations The John Cage Collection at Northwestern University in Illinois contains the composer’s correspondence, ephemera, and the Notations collection.