[silence] silence Digest, Vol 49, Issue 12

[Daniel Wolf]

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> 
> Message: 4
> Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2006 00:26:24 -0400
> From: "zachary moldof" <zacharygrangermoldof@gmail.com>
>
> My initial impression of anyone interpeting Cage's works in a jazz format is
> that it wouldn't materialize as something true to the concepts of Cage's
> music--most jazz musicians are virtuosii to some degree, thus their approach
> to a piece of Cage's music seems like it would not be well-suited. 

The issue is not virtuosity -- many of Cage's pieces require one form of 
virtuosity or another -- but attitude.  Most musicians, and most jazz 
musicians among them, cultivate skills for the performance of music as a 
directly expressive medium. In general (but not always), Cage's music is 
an exploration of the possibilities that occur when such an expressive 
agenda is set aside.

> My secondary response is that there is no wrong way to play a piece of
> Cage's music, and that is the point of it--his music is written in a format
> that tends to shy away from parameters and dictation, and instead leans
> towards concepts and diplomacy.

I believe that you're wrong on this point. Cage's scores -- like any 
scores -- specify one thing or another, and to not play what has been 
specified, or to play something that is either not called for, or to 
play it in a way that is not consistant with the score is to play it 
wrong.  A flute player who adds fluttertongue to Ryoanji is playing it 
wrong.  A pianist who throws in an extra slamming-shut of the piano lid 
in Music of Changes is playing it wrong.  A conductor who decides that 
he doesn't like bowed pianos when Cage asks for them, and then tells the 
pianist to play on the keyboard, is also doing it wrong.

> My Tertiary response is that it would have to be a group of musicians who
> truly understand the essence of Cage's philosophy, not just his written
> music. 

I believe that you're also wrong on this point.  If a group of musicians 
  has the required musical technique or skills and approaches a Cage 
score seriously and honestly, managing to distinguish between their own 
personal needs and those of the work at hand, they will certainly have 
all that is necessary and sufficient to perform the music. "Cage's 
philosophy" (a term that seems, unfortunately, to get bandied about as 
often as "Cage's compositions") was "worked out" both more completely 
and consequently in his work as a composer than as a writer, and as a 
composer, Cage was gifted at efficient notation.

Daniel Wolf