Klarinet Archive - Posting 000703.txt from 2001/09

From: Ed Wojtowicz <ewoj@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Jeering about Cage - T. Pay`s
Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2001 20:12:33 -0400

You are a musician, a clarinettist, a fine one, not a mime
> artiste.

There are those who will not perform works that require extended techniques
or avant garde music using this same argument. Where does one draw the line?
When is it music and when is it not? The same arguments can be made in art,
sculpture, etc.

If another composer and music promoter required you to wear bra,
> pants, and heels, would you readily rush out to your local lingerie
> department?

Not if you are a woman, or....well, ummm never mind, that is for other
places on the internet.

>All this sounds quite silly, doesn`t it? But I think we have to
> ask ourselves who it was who first thought of these controversial musical(?)
> ideas, and whether the originator of these ideas wanted to create a
> musically satisfying composition, or a whole century of controversy. I know
> which of these two I would like to be a part of.

Is the idea to be controversial or to make the listener think about the
concept of music/sound in a different way? Is it about a much bigger sense
of spiritual existence? Is it about philosophy rather than music in the
traditional sense? Is it about moving boundaries?

>
>> The thing is, Cage just wasn't trying to do what some of you want him to
>> have been trying to do.
>
> I suspect that his captive audience had wanted to actually hear a sound
> composition. Was this then not dishonest of Cage to have deprived his
> audience of that experience?

His audience came for an experience in a particular place and time. They got
an experience that could never be duplicated as those moments and emotions
could never be relived. I am sure they never forgot that experience.

Ed

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