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Considering that his music wasnt very good (his pieces for prepared piano being an exception), has anyone ever considered how convenient it was for Mr. Cage to adopt the philosophy that "music is simply the noise you choose to pay attention to"? A good example of the difference between theory and practice. Also a good example of how you can write and pontificate til yer lungs fall out but none of that neccesarily has anything to do w/ the creation of good music (dj spooky, are you reading this?) __________________________________________________ FREE voicemail, email, and fax...all in one place. Sign Up Now! http://www.onebox.com

On Mon, 23 Aug 1999, elk bot wrote:

quoted 4 lines Considering that his music wasnt very good (his pieces for prepared

> Considering that his music wasnt very good (his pieces for prepared > piano being an exception), has anyone ever considered how convenient > it was for Mr. Cage to adopt the philosophy that "music is simply the > noise you choose to pay attention to"?

Interesting that you should mention his prepared piano stuff... contrast Sonatas and Interludes with some of his seminal percussion work (of which there is a nice comp on Wergo w/1st Construction in Metal and all the hits) and you'll get a perfect illustration of the phenomenon that Drew was talking about (ref. noise->melody, melody->noise). The rest of the comment above sort of typifies the misunderstanding of Cage's music that clouds discussions of his significance, much like the cheap cigar smoke that accumulates wherever 1st year MBA students gather. To my knowledge, Cage never went the nihilistic/cynic route and said nothing/everything is music. Rather, he expanded what could be thought of musical source material (e.g. "notes," and in a general sense, what could comprise a score, a performer/"musician", etc). I always thought of the Fluxus "composers" as having taken Cage's ideas to their most extreme, ridiculous (and non-musical) conclusions. And God bless 'em for it. Sample score paraphrase (for a piece called "Polish", can't remember its author off hand): take a violin and polish it. None of this, of course, downplays the significance of Cage in art music of the second half of the 20th century. In fact, IDM sort of fundamentally depends on his theories (to a much greater degree than it does to Stockhausen, Parmegiani or any other conservatory guy name-checked in "Invisible Jukebox"). For the person who asked, the best starting point is probably the 25 Year Retrospective Concert 3CD set on Wergo. The reason behind the occasion is somewhat obscure (I think it was meant as the 25 year anniversary of his entry into composition or something), but it includes a plurality of his most significant early works. Everything is done up by a virtual who's-who of performers and I can't imagine why it wouldn't be considered to be wall-to-wall listenable (even pleasurable) by a crowd raised on Autechre. -rob

Is your subject title a reference to The Fall?.. On Mon, 23 Aug 1999, R. Lim wrote:

quoted 2 lines On Mon, 23 Aug 1999, elk bot wrote:

> On Mon, 23 Aug 1999, elk bot wrote: > To my knowledge, Cage never went the nihilistic/cynic route and said

for instance, "Indeterminacy" is far from cynical; it is lively and humorous... no where near brooding nihilism...

quoted 4 lines I always thought of the Fluxus "composers" as having taken Cage's ideas to

> I always thought of the Fluxus "composers" as having taken Cage's ideas to > their most extreme, ridiculous (and non-musical) conclusions. And God > bless 'em for it. Sample score paraphrase (for a piece called "Polish", > can't remember its author off hand): take a violin and polish it.

Extreme, yes. I have a Fluxus record from '89 or so that has a 30year old recording of Yoko Ono's toilet flushing ...

quoted 3 lines who's-who of performers and I can't imagine why it wouldn't be considered

> who's-who of performers and I can't imagine why it wouldn't be considered > to be wall-to-wall listenable (even pleasurable) by a crowd raised on > Autechre.

Aphex's new music-box track is not unlike some of the jilted layering that Cage did of recordings of his own peices for Toy Piano. Cage was very humorous, after all, he recorded notation of Satie's stuff when in school. That would be like taking composition lessons from Tom Leher or Victor Borge.... ! Solenoid

Sorry that I worded that sloppily; I meant that I read (I think in _The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors_) that Cage had learned about the works of Satie because he did some kind of tedious work involving writing out the sheet music for Satie's music as part of his college studies or something. I'm not sure if this meant that he helped publish some of Satie's unpublished sheet music or what... it was years ago I read this as it is what really got me listenning to SAtie. Last spring I saw a documentary (still somewhat unfinished in its' translation to English subtitles) about Satie that seemed to fall a little flat of my expectations but was visually rich (Satie's haunts, homes, neighborhoods, schools) I'm a big Satie fan now. I think that Japanese guy does the sad/odd peices best and the Italian pianist does the funny peices best. sorry my details are spotty... I urge IDMer's to go check out some Satie piano works from your public library... I think that Like a Tim is a nihilist=punk techno-geek version of Satie, esp concerning using music to communicate deadpan humor. Solenoid On Fri, 27 Aug 1999, Drusca wrote:

quoted 11 lines solenoid wrote:

> > > solenoid wrote: > > > Cage was very > > humorous, after all, he recorded notation of Satie's stuff when in school. > > What exactly do you mean ? Recorded notation ? > > Andrei >