[silence] Cage as Teacher

[saddiss]

Regarding Cage and disciples, I was one of his pupils at the New School 
in the late 1950's, and as I recall, he certainly didn't try to make us 
into mini-Cages (he later commented that he wanted people to get out of 
their cages), but rather encouraged us to stretch ourselves in 
experimentation and exploration.  He only talked about his own music 
when asked, and as he said of his own studies with D. T. Suzuki, "Very 
frequently you would leave the lecture without any consciousness of 
having learned anything . . . .nothing would have been pounded into 
your head or even made noticeable to you."   The result was that 
members of the class, such as Toshi Ichiyanagi, Jackson Mac Low, Dick 
Higgins, Allen Kaprow, George Brecht, Al Hansen, Scott Hyde and Carol 
Galente, all had very different lives and careers.

By the way, has anyone here seen the new exhibition at the Guggenheim 
in NYC, "The Third Mind; American Artists Contemplate Asia"?  Cage is 
prominently featured, including a number of his own art works.

Stephen Addiss

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