Sorry, I wasn't being clear. I meant the piece "Indeterminacy" where
Cage reads 60-second-long texts while David Tudor accompanies him on the
piano, while both are unable to hear each other being in separate
recording studios.
Great story about Mac Low.
best
Randolph
cris cheek wrote:
> Students here are fascinated by everything that constitutes what they
> call "random." Once they begin to examine what they might mean by that
> they are contesting all sorts of great stuff about expectations,
> juxtapositions, chance, the aleatoric, the found and yes indeterminacy.
>
> I once had a lovely conversation with Jackson Mac Low about the
> instructions embedded in his text The Marrying Maiden and how
> difficult it would be for an actress to perform either on or off the
> page. I can't really quote from the text here other than to say that
> there are conditioning instructions as to how almost every phrase is
> to be spoken. I was laughing about how near impossible that would be
> to do and Jackson giggled impishly "you see, i had found out how to
> achieve indeterminacy through overdetermination!"
>
>
>
>
> xx
>
>
>
> cc
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Apr 11, 2010, at 11:53 AM, Randolph Healy wrote:
>
>> Glad you like it Mark.
>>
>> And, cris, yes I can see students being turned around by this piece.Your
>> synopsis is spot on. I love the sound of the mechanical fish on the
>> piano. And the exchange:
>> Host: "Inevitably, Mr. Cage - these are nice people - but some of them
>> are going to laugh. Is that alright? "
>> Cage: "Of course. I consider laughter preferable to tears."
>> And when he shakes the water off his hand after putting the cymbals in
>> the bathwater.
>>
>> Re the unions, it seems odd, given the dispute over who had the right to
>> plug in the radios, that the panel were allowed to move the set back.
>>
>> Have you done "Indeterminancy" with your students?
>>
>> best
>>
>> Randolph cris cheek wrote:
>>> indd. my students often get turned around by Water Walk and have very
>>> positive things to say about Cage, fearing before they see it that
>>> they would think it's just "not music." They often go on about his
>>> manner of being inside the piece, his energy, his focus, his
>>> playfulness, his demeanor and the overall musicality of the
>>> composition. Then there are fascinating sub-texts such as the union
>>> dispute about who could and who could not plug in the radios. Most of
>>> all the laughter of the audience being part of the piece, something
>>> often totally new for a consideration of music.
>>>
>>>
>>> xx
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> cc
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Apr 11, 2010, at 11:29 AM, Mark Weiss wrote:
>>>
>>>> Thanks, Randolph. Brilliant.
>>>>
>>>> At 11:03 AM 4/11/2010, you wrote:
>>>>> I'm with Mairéad here.
>>>>>
>>>>> Many of you have probably seen this, but here's a clip of John Cage
>>>>> taking part in a game show.
>>>>>
>>>>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSulycqZH-U
>>>>>
>>>>> best
>>>>>
>>>>> Randolph
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> mairead byrne wrote:
>>>>>> This game show thing has huge gusto and energy. It looks (from my
>>>>>> perspective) like a lot of fun.
>>>>>> I don't have a TV but - /GO POETRY!!!!/
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Sun, Apr 11, 2010 at 10:28 AM, Judy Prince
>>>>>> <[log in to unmask]
>>>>>> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The middle east and far east have for centuries treasured their
>>>>>> poets and poetry in ways we seldom have in the west.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> My sadness with the "game-show" presentation is, as I said, with
>>>>>> its stark metaphor of capitalist climbing, the lack of humanity
>>>>>> and soul----humanity and soul, which I had thought were the meat
>>>>>> of poetry.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On 11 April 2010 09:28, Peter Riley <[log in to unmask]
>>>>>> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>>>>>> < mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I prefer to think that it's a sign that there are still
>>>>>> places
>>>>>> in the world where poetry is taken seriously, albeit a
>>>>>> rather
>>>>>> grotesque manifestation. It's more likely to be mocked
>>>>>> than
>>>>>> praised western-world-wide, and indeed the introductory
>>>>>> presentation on that clip already set the tone for it (how
>>>>>> weird for poetry to be as popular as ballroom dancing). But
>>>>>> this is a product of the climate in which Mahmoud Darwich is
>>>>>> an international hero, in which poetry can still be
>>>>>> recognised
>>>>>> as a real public presence. There's no reason, I think, to
>>>>>> assume the poems on this show to be the facile travesties
>>>>>> they
>>>>>> would be if such a thing took place here. PR
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On 11 Apr 2010, at 13:46, Judy Prince wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Thanks, Cris, I hadn't seen it.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> This makes me sad; it's a metaphor for poetry-climbing and
>>>>>> unmediated capitalism. And it will be praised worldwide.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Judy
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On 11 April 2010 08:10, cris cheek <[log in to unmask]
>>>>>> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>>>>>> < mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> sure you've all already checked this out but just in
>>>>>> case:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/world_news_america/8610524.stm
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>> Announcing *The Whole Island: Six Decades of Cuban Poetry*
>>>>> (University of California Press).
>>>>> http://go.ucpress.edu/WholeIsland
>>>>>
>>>>> "Not since the 1982 publication of Paul Auster's /Random House Book
>>>>> of Twentieth Century French Poetry/ has a bilingual anthology so
>>>>> effectively broadened the sense of poetic terrain outside the United
>>>>> States and also created a superb collection of foreign poems in
>>>>> English. There is nothing else like it." John Palattella in /The
>>>>> Nation/
>>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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