I Have Nothing New to Say and I Am Saying It

This may sound strange, but I think Cage's theory of gamuts and his use of the I-Ching (and thus much of his post-1950 output) was part of a wider something in the air at the time.

From about 1942-1965, there arose in pure mathematics a new theory called Category Theory , developed by people mostly inside a triangle formed by New York City, Chicago, and Montreal. Category theory concerns spaces comprised of abstract objects and the relationships between these objects.

If you consider the gamuts to be objects, then each composition (each sequence of rolls of the I Ching coins, for instance) creates a particular category. When I first read about gamuts, I immediately thought of category theory, and I found it odd that Cage also lived inside this triangle at this time.

KG attempts to comment: Huh.

Looks like you just wrote the preface to your book on John Cage.

KG replies: What's a blog for?

I would also suggest having a read (if you have not already done so) at the artist George Brecht's lecture notes of Cage's lectures in his composition class at the New School in 1957-59. These lectures were influential on the formation of the Fluxus movement, and are perhaps the source of Cage's enduring influence on the visual and plastic arts.

Even Brecht's notes are not always very illuminating (he was too busy doing to be writing-about-doing), reading them takes you back to the moment -- or, at least, took me.

KG replies: Thanks, I'll look for them.

I just finished "Music Downtown" and I really enjoyed it. It was great reading about the music which was happening when(sorry to make you feel old) I was too young to notice. Looking foward to your Cage book!

KG replies: Thanks. I never mind feeling old.

I think there are some real untapped stories here, for example: why can Cage's influence be found daily in pop culture but it's almost non-existent in contemporary composition? Forget what that says about Cage, what does it say about contemporary composition?
And also sounds like there's a lot of strong personal feelings about Cage, maybe the best thing would be a gonzo journalism, Gann-and-Cage duking it out type of thing.

KG replies: I know there are some pop-song references to 4'33", but when you talk about daily Cage influences in pop culture, can you give me some examples? I'd love to use them, and I'm pretty out of touch with pop culture myself.

Kyle,
I'm glad to hear you're writing about Cage. There's nothing like reading a book by a writer who is truly inspired by the subject!

I'm a fan of those late 'number' pieces. There not really discussed much in Cage literature. I think they are a wonderful way of creating truly tempo-less pieces. Cage's last works were expanding the idea of time-brackets, from single note gestures to long melismatic passages.

I actually worked for Paul Sadowski in the late 1980s and early 90s - at that time, we were Cage's copyist. In fact, I'm referenced indirectly on the CD liner notes for "Thirteen". Yes, I'm the anonymous copyist who worked with Cage on the enigmatic percussion parts for that piece!

Good luck with the book. I'm looking forward to it!

KG replies: I know there are some pop-song references to 4'33", but when you talk about daily Cage influences in pop culture, can you give me some examples? I'd love to use them, and I'm pretty out of touch with pop culture myself.

Just off the top of my head: Brian Eno (and by extension U2, Coldplay, James, David Byrne, etc.), Grateful Dead (and by extension contemporary bands like Grizzly Bear), Quicksilver Messenger Service, Tangerine Dream, Steve Roach, Robert Rich, David Lynch, almost everything on the Cartoon Network, etc.
Some of these have overtly referenced Cage (Eno, Grateful Dead), but many simply revel in the fact that noise is now allowed peacefully into art.

Bill's idea that the influence of Cage would be almost non-existent in contemporary music does not reflect my own experience. I mentioned the Wandelweiser group earlier; but over the years, I've come across very many people who were somehow influenced by the work of Cage.

Certainly his work has been an important source for my own - though much of my music has had very different concerns. You can perhaps only tell in my string quartet "Between Chords", by the sound of it, that it was influenced by the Number Pieces, and my "The Weather Riots" uses the flexible time bracket technique (but it doesn't sound like a Number Piece at all).

I love this new spamfilter, Kyle. It's "March puzzling" now.