Silence: Lectures and Writings, 50th Anniversary Edition

289 Pages·2011·10.03 MB·English

by  John Cage

SILENCE
Lectures
and
writings
by
JOHN
CAGE
WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY PRESS
Middletown, Connecticut
Published by Wesleyan University Press, Middletown, CT 06459
www.wesleyan.edu/wespress
Copyright © 1939, 1944, 1949, 1952, 1955, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1961 by John Cage
All rights reserved
First printing, 1961. Wesleyan Paperback, 1973.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 61–14238
Printed in the United States of America 20 19
ISBN–13: 978–0–8195–6028–5
ISBN–10: 0–8195–6028–6
Many of these lectures and articles were delivered or published elsewhere from 1939
to 1958. The headnote preceding each one makes grateful acknowledgment of its
precise source.
About the Author
His teacher, Arnold Schoenberg, said John Cage was “not a composer but an in-
ventor of genius.” Composer, author, and philosopher, John Cage was born in Los
Angeles in 1912 and by the age of 37 had been recognized by the American Acad-
emy of Arts and Letters for having extended the boundaries of music. He was
elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1978, and in 1982, the
French government awarded Cage its highest honor for distinguished contribution
to cultural life, Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. Cage composed
hundreds of musical works in his career, including the well-known “4'33"” and his
pieces for prepared piano; many of his compositions depend on chance procedures
for their structure and performance.
Cage was also an author, and his book Silence was described by John Rockwell in
the New York Times as “the most influential conduit of Oriental thought and reli-
gious ideas into the artistic vanguard—not just in music but in dance, art and poetry
as well.” John Cage’s books published by Wesleyan are: Silence (1961), A Year from
Monday (1967), M (1973), Empty Words (1979), which Cage also regarded as a per-
formance piece, X (1983), MUSICAGE (1996), I–VI (1997), and Anarchy (2001).
John Cage died in 1992 at the age of 79.
Wesleyan University Press is a member of the Green
Press Initiative. The paper used in this book meets
their minimum requirement for recycled paper.
To Whom It May Concern
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Foreword / ix
Manifesto / xii
The Future of Music: Credo / 3
Experimental Music / 7
Experimental Music: Doctrine / 13
Composition as Process / 18
I. Changes / 18
CONTENTS
II. Indeterminacy / 35
III. Communication / 41
Composition / 57
To Describe the Process of Composition Used in Music
of Changes and Imaginary Landscape No.4 / 57
To Describe the Process of Composition Used in Music
for Piano 21-52 / 60
Forerunners of Modern Music / 62
History of Experimental Music in the United States / 67
Erik Satie / 76
Edgard Varese / 83
Four Statements on the Dance / 86
Goal: New Music, New Dance / 87
Grace and Clarity / ~89
In This Day . •. / 94
2 Pages, 122 Words on Music and Dance / 96
On Robert Rauschenberg, Artist, and His Work / 98
Lecture on Nothing / 109
Lecture on Something / 128
45' for a Speaker / 146
Where Are We Going? and What Are We Doing? / 194
Indeterminacy / 260
Music Lovers' Field Companion / 274
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FOREWORD
For over twenty years I have been writing articles and giving lectures.
Many of them have been unusual in form-this is especially true of the lec
tures-because I have employed in them means of composing analogous to
my composing means in the field of music. My intention has been, often, to
say what I had to say in a way that would exemplify it; that would, con
ceivably, permit the listener to experience what I had to say rather than
just hear about it. This means that, being as I am engaged in a variety of
activities, I attempt to introduce into each one of them aspects convention
ally limited to one or more of the others.
So it was that I gave about 1949 my Lecture on Nothing at the Artists'
Club on Eighth Street in New York City (the artists' club started by Robert
Motherwell, which predated the popular one associated with Philip Pavia,
Bill de Kooning, et al.). This Lecture on Nothing was written in the same
rhythmic structure I employed at the time in my musical compositions
(Sonatas and Interludes, Three Dances, etc.). One of the structural divi
sions was the repetition, some fourteen times, of a single page in which
occurred the refrain, "If anyone is sleepy let him go to sleep." Jeanne
Reynal, I remember, stood up part way through, screamed, and then said,
while I continued speaking, "John, I dearly love you, but I can't bear
another minute." She then walked out. Later, during the question period,
I gave one of six previously prepared answers regardless of the question
asked. This was a reflection of my engagement in Zen.
FOREWORD/Ix