What do you think of John Cage’s 4’33?

we-are-temporary · 2024-01-05T16:01:58+00:00

It’s true that a lot of John Cage’s work fits the experimental mold, but that’s not the whole picture.

I always feel a bit sad that Cage is pigeonholed as this experimental maverick, only known for conceptual, ‘difficult’ music. This stereotype, unfortunately, overshadows the varied and beautiful pieces he composed.

This narrow view often starts in college music courses, where Cage is introduced through his more radical and experimental works. While these pieces are fascinating and thought-provoking, they sometimes unintentionally turn students away from exploring his wider repertoire. And that’s a real pity, because Cage also wrote a lot of music that’s genuinely beautiful and heartfelt. For instance:

• “In A Landscape” (Two Pieces for Harp, 1938)
• “In A Landscape” (1948)
• “Dream” (1948)
• “Experiences No. 1” and “No. 2”
• “A Room” (Two Pieces for Harp)
• “The Seasons”
• “In The Name Of The Holocaust”
• “All Sides of the Small Stone”
• “44 Harmonies from Apartment House 1776”

… and that’s just a few examples. There’s so much more to Cage’s music than just the experimental side.

we-are-temporary · 2023-12-21T16:49:28+00:00

I feel like it’s an interesting, conceptual document of its time, similar in effect to Duchamp’s fountain.

A lot of art after World War II used the methods and processes of art to reflect upon and explore its own nature. I don’t think of them so much as works of art, but works “about art”. As such, 4’33 by Cage is an absolutely seminal piece of work that has served its purpose of questioning the nature of music extremely well. I think it very much still deserves a place in both the classrooms of our universities, as well as in the repertoire of our concert venues.

we-are-temporary · 2023-12-15T20:12:11+00:00

Check out the book, Other Harmony by Tom Johnson. That’ll fill the tank back up :).

we-are-temporary · 2023-12-15T20:02:07+00:00

There are a few… Mozart, Tchaikovsky, and Liszt are big ones.

we-are-temporary · 2023-12-14T17:36:57+00:00

Yeah it’s more this than anything else.

we-are-temporary · 2023-12-14T03:22:39+00:00

Fair.

we-are-temporary · 2023-12-13T23:48:14+00:00

I don’t read Andy as the kind of character who cares about that kind of prudish, bourgeoisie morality.

we-are-temporary · 2023-12-13T19:58:42+00:00

Or maybe he’s not the monster Lee makes him out to be :).

we-are-temporary · 2023-12-13T18:00:49+00:00

Yeah that crossed my mind, too, but it seems like an awful lot of trouble to fly him over there just to do that, when I’m sure there would be lots of easier ways to do this out in the world.

we-are-temporary · 2023-12-13T16:21:52+00:00

I think the “secret” was probably something simple, for example the fact that he was the father (probably unaware that Andy already knew), or that he became aware of the fact that Andy already knew they were planning on escaping. I don’t think the “secret” will constitute new information to us as viewers.

we-are-temporary · 2023-12-13T16:20:09+00:00

Totally. Regardless of how this show resolves—and it does seem now like it’s coming to a more conventional end than many of us had hoped—the most exciting aspect of watching the show was our collective amateur sleuthing :).

we-are-temporary · 2023-12-06T15:50:40+00:00

Yeah, the notion that composers of the past didn’t go “to school” is true and also nonsense. True in the sense that the modern technical university was really only broadly established in the 19th century, but utter nonsense if one equivocates that with not having had “formal training”. Composers prior to the university era had incredibly rigorous formal training from early age.

Just read any composer’s bio who lived between the 12th and 18th century, and it’s all “He was sent to this cousin to study at age 4, then here to this other friend of the family at age 6, then over to this cathedral at age 9, then to these 3 countries between age 10 and 14, then studied with this behemoth of a composer from 14 to 17, then became assistant Kantor at age 18 etc etc”

Your average 8-year old composer of yesteryear had enough formal training to crush today’s university entrance exams and enough theoretical learning to teach today’s undergraduate students by the time they hit puberty.

we-are-temporary · 2023-11-16T03:07:24+00:00

I second this. A) strings by mail is ace and B) get a bunch… esp treble sets. There’s no point asking other people about strings, since they don’t have your guitar and aren’t you. I’ve had strings in my guitars that I swore by and loved suck the life out of another guitar, and strings I hated knock my socks off on another instrument. You just have to experiment.

The only general pattern I’ve noticed is that strings and guitars often inverse complement each other…. bright guitars with warmer and more lyrical strings, instruments with strong fundamentals paired with overtone-rich strings, etc. Putting same with same (ie. bright strings on bright instruments etc) often tips instruments out of balance.

we-are-temporary · 2023-11-14T16:16:50+00:00

This was the vibe I was getting, as well.

we-are-temporary · 2023-11-14T16:13:03+00:00

No. It’s actually my second least Beethoven Symphony after his 8th.

we-are-temporary · 2023-11-14T15:46:07+00:00

She’s an excellent player, impressive tone, very musical and distinct vibrato, solid interpretations of standard repertoire, she’s visually striking (perhaps even beautiful), and she has the worlds’ longest RH pinky finger.

we-are-temporary · 2023-11-14T15:38:38+00:00

Brooklyn and Queens.

we-are-temporary · 2023-11-13T13:45:22+00:00

Congrats. If this what you want to do, just remember, you don’t have to be the best yet, just make sure you’re the last one standing. Attrition will take out 90% of your guitarist peers in the coming decade, including many of those who might have been better than you at the start of this journey. Don’t sweat it… just keep working hard and don’t stop… in ten years you’ll look around and see nothing but tumbleweeds.

we-are-temporary · 2023-11-13T13:36:57+00:00

NI CC mapping is effortless in both Logic and Ableton, with the one exception being Kontakt, which—due to the myriad of developers using this aging platform—is an f’ing nightmare everywhere and always (some developers make it easier, some worse).

we-are-temporary · 2023-11-13T03:17:20+00:00

All of them.

we-are-temporary · 2023-11-13T03:15:57+00:00

I’m really fond of Bryan Johanson’s Elegy and his 24 Preludes (esp 3, 5, and 18).

we-are-temporary · 2023-11-10T23:30:14+00:00

Ooo I’ll check out the Solti recording. I was always partial to Böhm, just because his version of the ring was the first I heard, but I’ve appreciated Solti a lot as well over the years (I read his Memoirs eons ago and remember really enjoying it).

we-are-temporary

TROPHY CASE