THE INDETERMINATE MIND OF JOHN CAGE
MULTIP
PLICITY MULTIPLICITY
MULTIPLICITY THE INDETERMINATE MIND OF JOHN CAGE
CONTENTS
1
Introduction
2
There Is No Silence Now, Jill Johnston, 1962
6
John Cage: Some Random Remarks, Richard Kostelanetz, 1970
8
Not Wanting to Say Anything About Marcel, Barbara Rose, 1969
10
Timeline of John Cage’s Life
14
Bibliography
revolutionized art, music, literature, and poetry through his experimental thinking and constant push to challenge accepted definitions. The use of indeterminacy and chance factors in his work became an integral part of his thought process. By removing himself as the composer and allowing predetermined variables to play out randomly, Cage was able to reach another realm of music that forced new boundaries
on what was considered sound or composition. This book aims to emphasize the thought behind each indeterminate piece and the idea that compositions, both in music and art, need not always have one planned result. The pages of this book directly reflect Cage’s Variations I & II, each of which applied graphic elements to his idea of ‘chance operations’ and allowed each interaction to gain a unique experience.
Introduction
JOHN CAGE
1
There is No Silence Now
2
One
of the most difficult lectures in Silence is “Indeterminacy” (given in Germany in 1958), set, like his other lectures, in a unique structure and typescript (in this case, “intentionally pontifical”: small print) and examining in concise detail the degrees to which he finds each of several compositions (by Bach, Stockhausen, Earle Brown, Christian Wolff, Morton Feldman, and himself) to be “indeterminate with respect to its performance.” Cage’s heresy, of course, is his partial, sometimes total, abdication of will.
The pride of the West is bound up in the “profundities” resulting from the application of mind over the brute forces of nature. Now that this pride has been shattered by so many instances of irrationality in human nature and by discoveries pointing to the finitude of human knowledge, the most advanced thought and art of our time brings man back to his proper situation within nature. Cage achieves this position through external (as distinct from subconscious or “automatic”) techniques – methods of chance and
indeterminacy – which release him from his own psychology, taste, and permit the natural flow of impermanencies as they impress themselves on a mind empty of memories, ideas, and preconceptions; in short, empty. “If one maintains secure possession of nothing (what has been called poverty of spirit) then there is no limit to what one may freely enjoy.” Cage views the tradition of art in the West as an imposition on the viewer – forcing him to respond in a special way rather than making a situation of many possibilities. Particular emotional responses are inevitable, and, when the situation is indeterminate, each viewer
Jill Johnston, 1962
will make his own experience out of it. The question, as always, arises: What is the point of making anything at all, since at any moment the world is teeming with possibilities for experience? For Cage, the answer is that there is no point, it is simply something to do, which means that living and making a thing are not two separate acts. And if everybody can do it, then let everybody, “for the more, as is said, the merrier.” Cage’s adventurous intellect has brought him beyond the necessity of doing anything (in the Western sense of “striving”), and, in some sense, his music propounds the necessity of doing nothing. His silent piece, 4’ 33”, is an
expression of that necessity. It is a piece “in three movements during all three of which no sounds are intentionally produced. The lengths of time were determined by chance operations but could be any others.” In this piece, Cage makes everybody present (audience) the creator and the performer. It is doubtful that too many people would by interested in paying their money to listen to themselves (coughing, chaircreaking) for an entire evening. But Cage made an important point about
the nature of the “new music” that must have been well taken, by some at least, at the performance of his silent piece. Regarding the extreme result of silence in music, Robert Ashley, a composer, made a striking statement at an interview with Cage in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He said: “It seems to me that your influence on contemporary music, on ‘musicians,’ is such that
3
“I COMPOSE
MU There is No Silence Now
YES, BUT HOW? 4
I GAVE UP MAKING CHOICES. IN THEIR PLACE I PUT THE ASKING OF QUESTIONS.”
USIC. Jill Johnston, 1962
the entire metaphor of music could change to such an extent that – time being uppermost as a definition of music – the ultimate result would be a music that wouldn’t necessarily involve anything but the presence of people. That is, it seems to me that the most radical redefinition of music that I could think of would be one that defines ‘music’ without reference to sound.” The influence of John Cage, in the thought and action of many corners of contemporary art, is immense. One reason for this influence, I’m convinced, is his command of language. He has spoken eloquently for advanced music,
his own ideas, and methods; for dance; for those who also enjoy life and like to hear somebody like Cage talk about it; for those who are also stimulated by the Eastern philosophies, Zen in particular; and for those who also sense the need for a life based on experience rather than judgment. There is no logic in Cage’s lectures (unless it be the logic of style, which is everywhere in evidence); he merely describes situations, or gives spontaneous voice to convictions and
insights, or rambles coherently about nothing, as he does in “Lecture on Nothing” – and, in so doing, he brings us some of the most crystal-cut prose of contemporary writing; that which comes close to, if it is not, poetry, because of its lucid condensation, its quicksilver transaction between thought and world.
5
“AS FAR CON OF THOU GOES, I PR INCONSISTE Adopting the musical notion of un-
Some Random Remarks
ashamedly artificial constraints to literary purposes, Cage posits unprecedented ground rules that serve to emancipate him from conventional
6
ways of organizing and rendering words. An instance of this is “Indeterminacy” (1958), consisting of ninety funny stories, each of which, by self-imposed rule, will be a minute in length when read aloud. When Cage performs this piece on a Folkways record of that title (1959), while David Tudor makes random noises in another room, “Indeterminacy” is very much about variations in prose tempo, as well as the random interactions be-
tween musical sounds and verbalized words. Here the form of the work expresses part of its ultimate content, as a performance illustrates (as opposed to explains) the piece’s declarative title and Cage’s aesthetic position; therefore, the ninety funny stories, which are
Richard Kostelanetz, 1970
R AS NSISTENCY UGHT pleasurable in themselves and comic to various degrees, are just the surface occasion for less obvious, but more substantial, concerns. Here, as in much else of Cage, the unperceptive spectator can be deceived into accepting the surface as all of the point – as silence is simply no sound, so stories are just anecdotes; but more significant meaning are invariably implied or inferred, by the piece, the spectator, or both. However, to put these stories into conventional print, as Cage does in
7
REFER ENCY.”
Silence, destroys much of their primary effect (corrupting their original purpose even more than recordings of Cage’s recent pieces betray, as fixed renditions, their scored indeterminacy); and, in the traditions of printed literature, ninety funny anecdotes within a larger frame comprise no innovation at all. Similarly,
another performance piece, “Juilliard Lecture” (1952), published in the new book, is in its printed form all but unreadable, as is “Talk I” (1965), which, as Cage’s head note reveals, was not intended to be understood anyway.
“FORM IS WHAT INTE EVE FORTUNATELY IT IS Not Wanting to Say...
WHEREVER YOU AND TH 8
One can think of John Cage in many
ways. More than a composer, he has been philosopher, poet, inventor, teacher, prophet (true or false, depending on one’s viewpoint). Given his wide range of activity, the idea of John Cage as a visual artist does not seem so strange. Rather it seems merely another extension of a multidimensional personality defying the limitations of a one-dimensional world. One is not surprised to find Cage making graphics; the odd thing perhaps is to find him the last to use his own discoveries in creating an object. Since much of his activity has been directed toward breaking the hold of any elite,
it is also logical that his first art objects should be multiples, editions available to the many as opposed to “the happy few.” That Cage has created revolution, not only in music, but in all the arts cannot be denied. He has formulated a new attitude toward the subject matter, content, composition, and function of art. When he advised artists to leave their ivory towers and look at the world around them again, he attacked the century-long alienation of the artist from society. When he refused to impose a set meaning to content, but left inter-
pretation open to the psychology and experiences of the individual viewer, he destroyed the symbolic and metaphoric basis on which art since the Renaissance has rested. When he used chance as a means of composing, he undermined the traditional method by which Western art was structured. When he proposed that radical function was of greater significance today than a given radical form, he exposed the rhetoric of formalism as merely a revolutionary posture. Of course, Cage would be the first to admit that he is not alone in making the revolution. But he has been especially effective in communicating his radical ideas through his music, lectures, and writing. Now he has begun to explore some of his own principles in a visual medium. Characteristically, he enlarges the occasion of making something beyond the object—to extend his thinking about art and life in general.
In making these lithographs and plexigrams, Cage explores specific problems. He is especially interested in the use of chance as a means of determining image, composition, and color, but he is also examining the problem of meaning and a way of behaving as well. By posing himself the problem of creating an homage to his late friend Marcel Duchamp without referring to Duchamp, he is asking what happens when one avoids something deliberately. Among the things he is trying to avoid are conscious choice, taste, harmony, and quality as deliberately imposed elements. The result of Cage’s investigation surely proves that the artist asserts himself even in negation. For the lithographs and plexigrams he has produced have quality, harmony, order, and taste. Above all, they remind one of Duchamp—their suspended images creating a feeling of three-dimensional forms floating in free space reminiscent of Duchamp’s experiments with perception and illusionism. Permitting a work to occur, as opposed to imposing an order, he has produced an extremely personal object, delicate in tone, original in color, excellent in workmanship.
ERESTS ERYONE AND
Above all, Cage’s graphics prove that artistic freedom is yet another illusion. Not even the artist is free of himself, his tastes, memories, and associations. The decision to avoid something is not enough, if the artist’s individual sensibility asserts itself even in a situation determined by change. Cage’s first visual works are proof of his original premise: We must accept, since we are not free to avoid anything.
PLACE WHERE IT IS
NOT.”
Barbara Rose, 1969
U ARE HERE IS NO
9
JOHN CAGE (1912-1992) 1912
1929
Disillusioned with college, Cage drops out and spends the next 18 months in Europe, work ing as an architect’s appren tice and dabbling in music.
1931
After reading Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass,” Cage is inspired to re turn to the United States and devote himself to learn ing music composition.
Timeline
John Cage is born on Septem ber 5th in Los Ange les, California. His father is an inventor, and his mother is a housewife.
1937
Cage finds a job the Cornish School Arts in Seattle, Washington. In addi tion to discovering the profound impact of silence, he learns the ways of Zen Buddhism.
10
1948
With Cunning ham by his side, Cage joins the faculty of Black Mountain College. It is there that he composes his most famous (and notorious) work, 4’33”.
1950
Cage begins experimenting with indeterminacy in his music, applying the ideas of Zen Buddhism to his work.
1937
Cage invents the “prepared piano” — an oth erwise normal piano with various objects insert ed between the strings, effectively transforming the instrument into a percussion orchestra.
1951
Cage writes his first large-scale work, the Concerto for Prepared Piano and Chamber Orchestra.
1935
1940
Cage composes “Living Room Music” for percussion and speech quartet. It was written for common objects one would find in his or her living room.
1953
Cage moves to the country and gets involved the study of mushrooms. With the help of three friends, he founds the New York Mycological Society.
1935
Cage marries Xenia Andreyevna Kashevaroff in the desert at Yuma, Arizona on June 7th.
Timeline
Cage begins sitting in on classes taught by Arnold Schoenberg. He forms a percussion en semble and invites Schoen berg to one of his perfor mances, but Schoenberg declines his invitations.
1943
One of Cage’s most significant prepared piano works, “The Perilous Night,” is composed. Cage called it an “autobiographical” piece, in that it expressed the anxiety he was experiencing in his personal life.
1955
Cage begins collaborating with artists and designers who have little or no background in music, drawing on their creativity for his experimental compositions.
1945
Cage divorces his wife Xenia. He meets the choreo grapher Merce Cunning ham, and embarks on a personal and professional relationship that continues for the rest of his life.
11
Timeline
“MY FATHER TOLD THAT IF SOMEONE SA THAT SHOW
1962
12
Cage begins publishing his music and writings, and begins to create some of his largest and most ambitious works.
1967
Cage creates his musical free for-all, “Musicircus.” Featuring multiple performers in a large space, the score directs everyone involved to simultaneously per form anything they want.
1969
Cage makes an impression on the modern art scene with his plexiglass-en cased silkscreen creation, “Not Wanting to Say Anything About Marcel.”
1981
Cage writes “Thirty Pieces for 5 Orchestras.” Each piece is no more than 75 seconds, and each orchestra is directed by a different conductor.
D ME AYS ‘CAN’T’ WS YOU WHAT TO DO.” Timeline
1975
Always close to nature, Cage writes “Child of Tree,” an improvisatory work that uses plant material for instruments.
1982
“Wall to Wall Cage” is presented at Symphony Space in New York City, bringing together many of Cage’s friends and collaborators for a 13-hour concert in honor of his 70th birthday.
1976
The Boston Symphony pre mieres Cage’s Quar tets I-VIII, which use up to 93 players — but employ only four of them at any given time.
1990
Cage continues to compose well into his 70s, writing “The Beatles 1962-1970,” a six piano work comprised of random parts of Beatles songs.
13
1992
John Cage dies of a stroke in New York City at the age of 79. Three weeks later there is a performance of the “Concert for Piano and Orchestra” with David Tudor.
© Copy r ight 2012 Stephanie Schlim and Massachuset ts College of Ar t & Design. Book design by Stephanie Schlim. Ty peset in Thesis and Fr ut iger. CMYK Digital P r int. 2 4 Page Accordion Fold , Hard Cover. P r inted on French Paper Company Pop -Tone “Sweet Tooth” Tex t-Weight.
BIBLIOGRAPHY Kostelanetz, Richard, and John Cage. John Cage. New York: Praeger, 1970. Print. Kostelanetz, Richard. Conversing with Cage. New York: Limelight Editions, 1988. Print. Cage, John. Silence; Lectures and Writings. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan UP, 1973. Print. “John Cage. Indeterminacy.” Little Cambridgeport Design Factory. Ed. Eddie Kohler. Web. <http://www.lcdf.org/indeterminacy>.