Why John Cage should never have been taken seriously as a composer

[supergee]

If you develop an ear for sounds that are musical it is like developing an ego. You begin to refuse sounds that are not musical and that way cut yourself off from a good deal of experience.

If you develop a preference for food that tastes good, it is like developing an ego. You begin to refuse inedible food and that way cut yourself off from a good deal of experience. Hire me as a chef.

Comments

[marahmarie]

But if that's what he's saying, then he's right (and he's also saying more is musical than you might think). Jackhammers can sound musical given the right context. Almost anything can.

Also, a quick check through his quotes shows him as pretty open-minded. I kind of like the way he thinks so I have to thank you for getting annoyed (because I never heard of him before this). :)

[bibliofile]

I'd agree with Cage, too, as "music" is more a cultural evaluation than anything else.

Maybe instead of "food," "cuisine" might work as a better analogy? Assignging cultural value to a noise (or lack thereof) is not quite the same as determining whether something is merely edible.

[marahmarie]

But there's a huge difference between "merely edible" and "tastes exquisite" that is not only subjective, quite literally, to your taste, but has stronger class biases built into it than the mere consumption of music, which, if you tune and time your jackhammers just right, can please across the economic and social strata without offending on any sort of inherent cultural level (while bologna for the 7th day in a row to someone who's become accustomed to a more high-end and varied diet can understandably grate on more levels than merely how it tastes). So there's a lot more to this discussion than the mere tuning out of unpleasant noise or food - it becomes about built-in bias and those biases developed over time and through environment and/or deliberate self-exposure, as well. Which is why I really like the way he thinks. :)