Re: Cage's prejudices
john saylor <[email protected]>
| Newsgroups | gmane.music.john-cage |
|---|---|
| Message-ID | <[email protected]> |
hello On Fri, Jun 17, 2011 at 4:20 PM, <[email protected]> wrote: > I've never read his Defense of Satie, but could any of you that > have read the essay outline any of the more convincing points Cage made that > stood pejoratively against Beethoven's music and positively for Satie's > (other than Satie's music superficially organized with time unit as opposed > to Beethoven's frequency)? well- convincing? i dunno. you have to make up your own mind. the basic point he's making is that satie [and webern] use time durations for structure and beethoven uses harmony. there's more to it than that, but you'll have to read it yourself [a worthwhile pursuit, imnsho]. and there are holes in that analysis too [beethoven uses harmony changes to mark time divisions], but i digress ... he's also talking about his own music, and the things that interest him in music; but you need to take a step back in order to see that. it sounds in your note like you're looking for some kinda orthodoxy or 'received wisdom' about musical opinions of cage 'ethusiasts' [a good way to put it, btw]. i don't know if it exists. remember, cage was a self-proclaimed anarchist [at least at one point]- any kind of authoritarian canon of proper opinions or proper works is kinda cage-counter-cultural [one might say]. also, beethoven can be used as a metaphor for the musical establishment of that time. today, he's have to rail against lady gaga ... hahaha -- \js [http://or8.net/~johns/] : "... entering a century of pure hysteria." -d.bellamy