I love well performed and executed gimmicks.
Who's with me?
-----Original Message-----
From: chthonic [mailto:chthonic@chthonicstreams.com]
Sent: Thursday, November 17, 2005 12:18 PM
To: idm@hyperreal.org
Subject: Re: [idm] Gimicky Cage
---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: Victor Elkins <tempvictor@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 17 Nov 2005 11:54:22 -0500
quoted 2 lines Sounds a bit brilliant to me, particularly the sitting at the piano and>Sounds a bit brilliant to me, particularly the sitting at the piano and
>playing nothing thing, which forces people to listen to the environment
and
quoted 1 line what's inside.>what's inside.
normally i hate gimmicks, but i agree cage's seem to have some thought
behind it. it's
conceptual art more than music. if you don't go for conceptual art you
won't appreciate
cage.
the definition of "gimmick" is further food for thought:
1. A device employed to cheat, deceive, or trick, especially a mechanism
for the secret and
dishonest control of gambling apparatus.
- i don't hink cage was trying to "put one over" on people. he could
have come up with
something to swindle a lot more money.
2. An innovative or unusual mechanical contrivance; a gadget.
- did he ever invent any mujsical gadgets? i can't recall.
3. An innovative stratagem or scheme employed especially to promote a
project: an
advertising gimmick.
- this seems to be what was implied here, but i don't believe any of the
pieces he performed
were summarized in order to promote them ("i read in the paper that at
john cage's concert
tonight he's gonna sit in front of a piano and not play anything! that
is so wild, let's go!")
the innovations he came up with were to expand the horizons of music and
art, not sell
anything.
4. A significant feature that is obscured, misrepresented, or not
readily evident; a catch.
- if anything, this is possibly the only way you could apply this word,
since you could say for
example that sitting in front of the piano implies he's going to play
it, which is a
misprepresentation. and certainly his music is obscure; though one of
the more famous
avant-garde musicians, his name is less known than a lot of artists and
musicians.
d.
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