Tuesday, May 13, 2008

John Cage Plays One of His "Compositions"



This is long, but the absurdity of what is meant as "music" is worth watching.

3 comments:

AJ Harbison said...

At least people back then had the good sense to laugh at him. It's all too easy to imagine a concert hall of musicians and composers from academia sitting and listening quietly today. I take it as a sign of my musical sanity that I laughed as well.

AJ Harbison
AJ Harbison Music

Amy said...

Is this some sort of precursor to Stomp?

Gregory Wilbur said...

AJ:

I agree. Even the host's need to express that this was "serious" music but that people would laugh is a far better indicator of musical judgment than ivory tower academicians.

It's an interesting thing to see how someone's artistic philosophy actually serves to destroy that which they say they value. In this case, broad theories of sound as music replaces that which makes music music.

Greg