[silence] Cage's calligraphic scores

[kkrka kr]

Thank you for your comments. I apologize for asking a stupid question; its
just that Cage's scores are the only ones I have of contemporary music that
are published in handwritten form, and I assumed that this was because Cage
wanted it so.

I also apologize for the wrong wording and/or spelling - English isn't my
native language. I had no intention to imply that the change in Cage's
handwriting style was in any way surprising; on the contrary, I thought that
perhaps age was the reason why he stopped doing handwritten scores.

On Dec 16, 2007 9:13 PM, <kos@panix.com> wrote:

> On Sun, 16 Dec 2007, kkrka kr <haajg5@gmail.com>
>
> > By "calligraphic" I mean that the scores are carefully prepared
> handwritten
> > copies that all conform to a particular typeface.
>
> "Particular typeface"?  What I think you mean is "handwriting style."
>
> After the mid-1930s, Cage's handwriting style in his scores is pretty much
> established.  By that time (at least for "finished" scores) he was
> measuring
> the spacing of measures (often a measure is 1 inch long), and
> judging the spacial position of notes as well.
>
> > its just
> > that they are not simply autographs, but very neat, specially prepared
> > autographs (I remember an illustration from a book showing a draft of
> the
> > prepared piano concerto, which didn't have any kind of typeface and
> looked
> > very different from the score).
>
> It's really a simple matter that most composers know:  When you can't
> afford
> copyists, you learn how to write neatly.  That doesn't mean that you need
> to
> write neatly all the time.  If you're sketching out material for yourself,
> of
> course you don't need to go through the trouble of calculating physical
> distance of everything on the page.
>
> > Its clear that Cage did not use the same kind of handwriting in daily
> life
> > (a letter from 1950:
> > http://www.library.upenn.edu/exhibits/rbm/music/2-2.jpgand one from
> 1984:
>
> As I'm sure you'll discover, when you get older, your handwriting changes.
>
> > http://www.alvincurran.com/Cage%20letter.jpg ), so the typeface used in
> the
> > scores must've been specially invented for them. Hence, "calligraphy".
> Of
> > course, I may be wrong about it all, but I've seen his scores described
> as
> > "calligraphic" many times.
>
> Typeface implies a machine reproduction.  But up to a certain point, Cage
> wrote
> his scores by hand, so it's called "manuscript."
>
> > Oh, and the relationship with Edition Peters started in 1960, so for at
> > least 10 years he supplied them with handwritten scores, rather than
> asking
> > to typeset them - which he could've done easily by that time, I think.
>
> Do you have any idea how much it costs to engrave a page?  For good
> quality
> reproductions, they didn't do typesetting of music in the 1960s - it was
> all
> done by hand.  Today, publishers like Henle and Baerenretier scores are
> still
> done entirely by hand.  A few years ago, that cost was about $1,000 a
> page.  I
> once spoke with Carl Schachter about the creation of the textbook he
> co-authored
> with Felix Salzer, "Counterpoint in Composition" (published in 1969, but
> gestating throughout the 1960s).  All the musical examples in that book
> were
> hand-engraved, and he said the cost for each example was enormous (several
> hundred dollars), so they had to choose their examples judiciously.
>
> I surmise that Cage's scores were not "typeset" (i.e. were not written out
> by a
> professional copyist) simply because it would have been exorbitant, based
> on
> the rate of return of the investment.  Of course, by the time you get to
> the
> number pieces in 1984, that's what Peters was doing, since Cage's
> reputation
> had risen.
>
>
> Bob Kosovsky, Ph.D. -- Curator, Rare Books and Manuscripts,
> Music Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
>   Listowner: OPERA-L ; SMT-TALK ; SMT-ANNOUNCE ; SoundForge-users
> --- My opinions do not necessarily represent those of my institutions ---
>
>
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