John Cage

See also: Cage (homonymy)

John Milton Cage , more known under the name of John Cage , was a type-setter, poet, American plastics technician , born the September 5th 1912 with Los Angeles, deceased the August 12th 1992 with New York.

Raise Schoenberg, it illustrated itself as type-setter of experimental Modern music , Philosophe, inspirer, inter alia, of the movement Fluxus.

Its most famous work is probably 4 ' 33 , part quiet for one (E) interprets during which il/elle does not play. In spite of its title, this part is of one free duration, three movements however having to be indicated in the course of play. Often interpreted by the pianist David Tudor, simply posing the hands on the keyboard to hear the noises coming from the public or neighborhood in an invitation with listening. This work underlines more than any other the importance which John Cage attached to silence because of an experiment in anechoic Chambre in which he realized that silence did not exist because two sounds persisted: beats of its heart and the acute sound of its nervous system. Like says it Yoko Ono, John Cage “regarded silence as a true note”.

In 1935, for lack of place to be able to use instruments of percussions for the needs for a work intended to accompany a Chorégraphie by Syvilla Fort, Cage invented the Piano prepared.

It composed of many parts for prepared piano of which the Sonates and interludes, where the pianist must insert in a precise way between certain cords of the piano of the various objects like bolts or gums being used to transform the sound of it.

He collaborated with the choreographer Merce Cunningham and created for him of the musics based on the principle of indetermination by using the method of pulling random of the Yi-king. The word " aléatoire" must get along at John Cage, in English, like " chance " and not " random".

Strangeness of its compositions leaves to show through influence of type-setter Erik Satie, which was the author of what at the time were musical bizarreries, like esoteric the Gnossiennes , or the very purified and famous Gymnopédies . Seeking to purify its music, it had the characteristic to write its works without musical punctuation, leaving to the pianist like only indications descriptions of atmosphere instead of traditional the PP .

The work of John Cage is based on research, the experimentation of the music. He was prize winner of the Prix of Kyoto in 1989.

Some works

First Construction in Metal (1939)
Living room Room Music (1940)
Creed In Custom (1942)
Sonatas and interludes (1948)
Music off Exchanges (1951)
4 ' 33 (1952)
Radio operator Music (1956)
Fontana Mix (1958)
Cartridge Music (1960)
Variations II (1961)
0 ' 00 (4 ' 33" No.2) (1962)
Cheap Imitation (1969)
HPSCHD (1969)
Branches (1976)
Litany for the Whale (1980)
Ryoanji (1983)
Goal What Butt the Noise off Crumpling Paper (1985)
Europeras 1 & 2 (1987)
Four6 (1992)

Some film musics

All these fair promisess of Jean-Paul Civeyrac
Through the forest of Jean-Paul Civeyrac

Books

Correspondence with Pierre Boulez, Christian Bourgois, 1991.
John Cage by John Cage , Textual, 1998.
Conversations with John Cage , Richard Kostelanetz (transl. Marc Dachy), Editions of Syrtes, Paris 2000.
For the birds: Discussions with Daniel Charles , Herne, 2002.
I never listened to any sound without liking it: the only problem with the sounds, it is the music , the Handrail, 2002.
Journal: how to make the world better (one does nothing but worsen the things) , Hero-Limit, 2003.
Silence , speech and writings, Hero-Limit, 2003; Denoël " X-trême" , 2004.
Marcel Duchamp , edition prefaced and established by Marc Dachy, Wind mill, 2005.
One year as of Monday: Conferences and written , Textual, 2006.
Bischoff, Ulrich (Hg.): Kunst als Grenzbeschreitung: Modern John Cage und die , cat. exhib. Staatsgalery moderner Kunst, München 1991

Esthetics

“John Cage, with Duchamp, is a theorist visionary of experimental esthetics, at least in its creative applications. James Tenney will continue after Cage the exploration of a released harmony of the vertical scale and range of the moderate piano. He will discover, parallel to the European spectral school, the multidimensional character of the harmony. ”

The consequences of these projections for a future science of art, with the direction rimbaldien of the term, are determining.

Quotations

“All that one sees, i.e. any object and the fact of looking at it, it is Duchamp. ”

External bonds

Biography and catalogs works on the site of IRCAM
John Cage' S Europeras.
“Logical of the execution: Cage/Gould”, by Elie During. Article on Glenn Gould and John Cage appeared in the review '' Critique '', n°639-640, August-September 2000.
general and very complete site on John Cage (in English).
Thomas Dreher: " After John Cage": Zeit in der Kunst DER sechziger Jahre - von Fluxus-Vents zu interaktiven Multi-Monitor-Installationen (in German)
Thomas Dreher: John Cage und Fluxus (in German)

Simple: John Cage

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