Thinking back to where this thread emanated from, it was Matthew Herbert
whom 'gimmick' was imputed to, and the Cage was a bit of a red herring.
Ultimately it seems to me that the question about whether such
compositional process devices (let's call them) as Herbert has employed are
to be most aptly characterised as: "a device employed to cheat, deceive, or
trick..." or: "innovative stratagem or scheme employed especially to
promote a project" or simply: "An innovative or unusual mechanical
contrivance..." is a question of subjective interpretation based on
attempts to second-guess authorial intention. Whether it's deception,
promotion, or simply desire to innovate or be unusual that's seen to be the
'driver' is related to the appraiser's own perceptual projections.
And all dictionary definition does is tease out a number of connotations,
some derogatory, some neutral, merely providing evidence that it's possible
for someone to say that "Herbert uses gimmicks" (or Cage, for that matter),
and be seen as being relatively approbatory, on the one hand, or
potentially libellous on the other, depending on which reading is
'preferred'.
So yeah... blah.
alan
--On 17 November 2005 09:17 -0800 chthonic <chthonic@chthonicstreams.com>
wrote:
quoted 56 lines ---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
> ---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
> From: Victor Elkins <tempvictor@gmail.com>
> Date: Thu, 17 Nov 2005 11:54:22 -0500
>
>> 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 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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