John Cage, Experimental Music (1957)
p. 33
Musical habits include sales, modes, theories of counterpoint and harmony, and the study of the timbres, singly and in combination of a limited number of sound-producing mechanisms. In mathematical terms these all concern discrete steps. They resemble walking--in the case of pitches, on steppingstones twelve in number. This cautious stepping is not characteristic of the possibilities of magnetic tape, which is revealing to us that musical action or existence can occur at any point or along any line or curve or what have you in total sound-space; that we are, in fact, technically equipped to transform our contemporary awareness of nature's manner of operation into art.
Again there is a parting of the ways. One has a choice. If he does not wish to give up his attempts to control sound, he may complicate his musical technique towards and approximation of the new possibilities and awareness. (I use the word "approximation" because a measuring mind can never finally measure nature.) Or, as before, one may give up the desire to control sound, clear his mind of music, and set about discovering means to let sounds be themselves rather than vehicles for man-made theories or expressions of human sentiments.
.....
New music; new listening. Not an attempt to understand something that is being said, for, if something were being said, the sounds would be given the shapes of words. Just an attention to the activity of sounds.
p. 33-34
Those involved with the composition of experimental music find ways and means to remove themselves from the activities of the sounds they make. Some employ ancient operations, derived from sources as ancient as the Chinese Book of Changes, or as modern as the tables of random numbers used also by physicists in research. Or, analogous to the Rorschach tests of psychology, the interpretation of imperfections in the paper upon which one is writing may provide a music free from one's memory and imagination. Geometrical means employing spatial superimposition's at variance with the ultimate performance in time may be used. The total field of possibilities may be roughly divided and the actual sounds within these divisions may be indicated as to number but left tot eh performer or to the splicer to choose. In this latter case, the composer resembles the maker of a camera who allows someone else to take the picture.
p. 34
Where do we go from here? Towards theatre. That art more than music resembles nature. W have eyes as well as ears, and it is our business while we are alive to use them.
p. 34-35
And what is the purpose of writing music? One is, of course, not dealing with purposes but dealing with sounds. Or the answer must take the form of paradox: a purposeful purposelessness or a purposeless play. This play, however, is an affirmation of life--not an attempt to bring order our of chaos nor to suggest improvements in creation, but simply a way of waking up to the very life we're living, which is so excellent once one gets one's mind and one's desires out of its way and lets it act of its own accord.
Controversy is his name--John Cage. He brought an seemingly new idea to western art music. "Let the sound be sound", along with other ideas that dazzled the audiences by ease, for instance, The Book of Change (易經). How much Cage comprehends The Book of Change reminds veiled. However the concept of approaching The Book Change really differs from approaching a table of random numbers does worth some further discuss.
Nevertheless, Cage did bring a huge impact to the concept of listening for the audiences who are used to western performing art music, which is--on the stage, piece of works performed by trained people. What was Cage trying to achieve at that time? The concept of chance was introduced later on in Cage's writing which did break down the idea of fixed structure. The concept of silence was introduced such as in 4'33" to acknowledge the existence of silence. Nonetheless, how new these 'new' concepts really are?
Here quoting another source from Music Works: The Journal of Sound Exploration. No. 62, summer 1995, p 14-18 by Kasemets, Udo's writing 'I Ching Music, John Cage and I Ching',
The author gave two statements but here will cite the first one just for one to ponder:
Really, when one comes to think about it, every piece that has been played life, is coexisted with some amount of non-certainty. No one can reproduce a piece that is exactly identical to the other performance. Therefore one can not help wonder, Cage's concept of chance, can't it be seen as widening up the window for the non-certainty? On the other hand, the level of freedom is still controlled by the composer. How much difference does this freedom really differentiate from the other conceptually?One: "Pertaining to aesthetics - It is now possible to make a musical composition the continuity of which is free of individual taste and memory.
Rather than saying that Cage opened up a new page in composition techniques, it felt more like he is under the influences from his background just like every composer dose and cohere it into his creative movement. Although this is personal opinion of mine. Nonetheless, his intention of finding a new path for art music is obvious. The effort in establishing some relatively new notions of listening by pieces like 4'33" still contributes to enlarge his 'Musical habits'* that he employs in composition. As the above citation from p.34, Cage believed that music will move towards theatre in his vision.
In the end, his still is under the 'performing art music' framework which of course created paradox, the paradox of which Chinese has long ago already developed comprehensive understanding by great philosopher like Lao-tzu ( 老子 ).
From the aspect of finding a new path for music composition, somehow Varèse's notion seems more matured to me. Quoting his words from Susan Key's writing 'John Cage's Imaginary Landscape No. 1: Through the Looking Glass' from John Cage: Music Philosophy and Intention, 1933-1950 edited by David W. Patterson p. 122 (New York: Routledge, 2009)
I became conscious of a third dimension in the music. I call this phenomenon 'sound projection,' or the feeling given us by certain blocks of sound. Probably I should call them beams of sounds, since the feeling is akin to that aroused by beams of light sent forth by a powerful searchlight. For the ear--just as for the eye--it gives a sense of prolongation, a journey into space.
I think of musical space as open rather than bounded, which is why I speak about projection in the sense that I want simply to project a sound, a musical thought, to initiate it, and then to let it take its own course. I do not want an a priori control of all its aspects.
A lot of questions following, however, here is a clip for Cage's 4'33", for people who never heard or read about it before, it would be a rather interesting experience.
Source taken from:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUJagb7hL0E
* p. 33 citation.
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