[silence] Seems odd... (itunes)

[Rob Haskins]

In his later years, Cage seemed to imagine some of his music for the recorded medium of the CD (I'm thinking in particular of Four4 and One10).  The quiet dynamics of both pieces are well suited to the quieter surface of the CD--so I would say that it's not strictly true that Cage was unconcerned about the sound quality of recordings. 
Rob

Rob Haskins
Assistant Professor of Music
University of New Hampshire
rob_haskins@yahoo.com
http://robhaskins.net

"Heroism doesn't consist in brilliantly combatting someone else. . . .  What is heroic is to accept the situation in which you find yourself."  -- John Cage




----- Original Message ----
From: Eric Phelps <ericlphelps@yahoo.com>
To: silence@list.mail.virginia.edu
Sent: Wednesday, December 6, 2006 3:37:33 PM
Subject: [silence] Seems odd... (itunes)

Seems odd that you guys are concerned about "sound quality" on the internet.  Cage admittedly didn't really care for recordings of his work at ALL (despite the fact that he allowed his work to be recorded - often making interesting works specifically FOR recorded mediums).  But in several cases the work is played through the lousy speakers of a portable radio (Imaginary Landscape IV is it?), involves heavy distortion (Cartridge Music) or all of the above (Musicircus, Theatre Pieces). Much of his work in Germany was broadcast on radio, which likey was heard through transister "junky speakers" all over Europe.
   
  What's the sound quality of a blast of wind?  Maybe in comibination with a truck going by, a splash of rain AND the broadcast of an ipod - you actually have the ideal circumstances for listening to Cage's work - or at least the spirit of the thing.
   
  I agree that Cage would have been
 very interested in the possiblities of the internet... He would like have exploited not only the obvious ways of working with it (which has been done to death), but the ways in which information intersects.  Simultaneous performances of his work around the world, bringing in the other performances, etc. is a very interesting thing which has been done.  He was working with a computerized iChing long before the world wide web, so...  (His new piece might be called "i-pod Ching"!)
   
  If you are trying to listen to some pristine version of Cage's pieces for instruments, or really quiet pieces, then get a nice stereo, a set of early 80s monster headphones and block out the world (though I personally think this is ridiculous).  Better yet: hear a concert of the work by LIVE musicians with the accompanying coughs, giggles, creaking seats and farts of the audience.
   
  "The sounds of the
 environment are in no way an interruption of the music" - (and by extension, the kind of equipment we listen to it on does not matter).
   
  My 3 cents,
  Eric
 


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