edited by Laura Kuhn (Music 780.92 Cage)
Originally published almost a decade ago, The Selected Letters of John Cage, edited by Laura Kuhn, director of the John Cage Trust, revealed even more personal aspects of the well-published composer’s life over the decades than we’d previously seen in print. Now it’s back in paperback with a new foreword by Los Angeles Times music critic Mark Swed, and what an interesting book this is!
In addition to his work as a
composer, Cage is well-regarded as a writer. Remember that for artists of many
disciplines in the post-WWII avant-garde, the ideas that underpinned new
directions in the arts were indeed so new and unexplored by audiences (and even
other artists) that various kinds of written and oral communication, from
manifestos to lectures to in-depth interviews, became part of the job for New
Music proponents. And Cage was among the best at articulating his ideas in
lectures and articles that were often made into books. I often tell folks that
Cage’s books can be a real pleasure to read even if you’re not into his music.
His writing style is friendly, gentle and approachable, and often reflects his
interests in Buddhist concepts.
But lectures and articles collected
into books may not give us the full impression of what kind of a person their
writer was. For that, we need more intimate modes of writing, like diaries or
letters, where the intent to publish doesn’t lead to guarded thoughts, or prose
polished in anticipation of wider audiences. When the John Cage diary of sorts
was published around the time of his death in 1992, we got a little glimpse
into his inner thoughts on paper—there were more social and political ideas
included in these writings than most of his published writings centered around
music. But even this material was a kind of personal composition that Cage
subjected to formal limitations as he contributed to it over about 16 years. He
used the same kinds of chance operations found in much of his music to
determine the word count, color and font of the entries before committing them
to paper, which is a fascinating creative exercise, but it can’t help but
filter the otherwise extemporaneous thoughts one would normally associate with
a diary.
Now we can turn to letters. The Selected Letters reveals what’s likely to be
the closest we’ll get to Cage’s personal voice, unadorned by his need to write
mesostic poetry or control the length of his sentences with the I Ching. Most
of the letters selected for the book are correspondence with other composers,
performers, promoters, and music critics, and they focus on practical issues:
upcoming performances, pitching projects, discussing criticism, and negotiating
payments for himself and performers. For a composer who became a kind of
legendary figure, there’s something comforting about reading
his very ordinary letters around putting together contemporary music events:
securing instruments, making sure everyone is paid enough to make travel
worthwhile. For all of the well regarded lectures and premieres throughout
Cage’s career, here we find some of the evidence of him paying his dues,
putting in the grueling and often unpleasant work of arranging contracts and
keeping all of the involved parties on the same page without the assistance of
a manager. The earlier letters, mostly from the 1940s, include a lot of
correspondence with his parents, updating them on significant moments in his
career and occasionally having to ask for money to get by. Where the early
letters are concerned, I was especially taken by his long December 1940 letter
to music writer Peter Yates, who had sent a pre-publication article that Cage
apparently found misguided. True to his nature, Cage wrote a patient and
lengthy article of his own in return, explaining the historical underpinnings
of his percussion music and the context he felt more accurately represented the
purpose and place for the music. Later 40s letters include correspondence with
his partner Merce Cunningham, including a touching “Song For Merce” included in
a July 1944 letter.
In many ways, the 1950s were the
most important decade for Cage in terms of becoming a household name. His 4’ 33’’
piece debuted in 1952, and he published lots of articles and gave lectures that
were gathered into the book “Silence,” published in 1961. My favorite
highlights among letters of this decade are mostly correspondence with pianist
David Tudor, for whom Cage wrote most of his work within this span of time. The
combination of friendly banter and practical considerations for new works and
performances in these letters is fascinating. But perhaps my favorite letter of
the period is one written to John Edmunds at the Music Division of the New York
Public Library for the Performing Arts. In that letter, Cage laments the
difficulties of making new experimental music of the era available to the
general public. He proposes four methods of disseminating these materials:
creating a composers’ cooperative, publishing materials in other countries,
publishing through an American university, and simply publishing and
distributing materials directly through the network of public libraries
throughout the country. Wouldn’t it have been cool if that last idea had panned
out?
Letters from the 1960s include
those to some of his literary heroes like Buckminster Fuller, Marshall McLuhan
and Norman O. Brown, and during this period Cage’s music seemed to take on new
dimensions regarding social issues, ecology, and evolving technology in ways
that reflect these friendships. But he was still a working fellow trying to pay
bills, and practical issues still make up a lot of correspondence. A letter to
synthesizer pioneer Robert Moog from July of 1965 illustrates this kind of
situation: with support money coming in short, and costs for synth equipment
coming in high, Cage writes to lay out the financial shortfall he is facing in
straightforward terms. And fundraising remains a critical part of getting new
music out to the public, shown in several letters to other composers, gently
requesting a manuscript page written in their hand to be donated for a sale to
benefit the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts.
The tenor of letters in the 1970s
and 80s feel similar to those of the 60s, though Cage had now created his
poetic form of “mesostics,” which occasionally appear even in letters. Even
fundraising can be represented as a mesostic! In this period, he continued to
be very busy composing and traveling, but there are signs of him looking at the
end of his career: he writes to Wyman W. Parker in January of 1973 inquiring
about leaving his collection of music-related correspondence and manuscripts
with the Northwestern University Library. Even though he lived almost 20 years
beyond this, he gradually accepted that he was something of an “elder
statesman” among composers by this point in his life, and made sure that his
past would be looked after while continuing to think forward as a composer. In
letters among friends, he starts to mention lifestyle changes often associated
with age, such as quitting smoking, reducing his alcohol intake, changing his
diet, and receiving chiropractic and acupuncture care. But his persistence as a
composer remained impressive to the end. In the final weeks of his life, he was
corresponding about a festival of his music to be held in Frankfurt in
September of 1992, which ultimately was held in his absence after his died of a
stroke the month before.
All told, The Selected Letters of John Cage is a fantastic
addition to his legacy. For a composer that is often remembered as a kind of
musical sage or philosopher, the nuts and bolts of his daily efforts and the
kindness displayed throughout decades of letters reminds us that he was, at his
core, a polite and even somewhat shy person whose gentle humanity is sometimes
lost in the discussion of his work. Highly recommended,
especially for young composers, as a reminder that even those at the pinnacle
of fame in new music still made their own phone calls and wrote their own
letters for support.
(If you enjoy this, you may also
wish to try Begin Again: A Biography of John Cage by Kenneth Silverman
or CageTalk: Dialogues With and About John Cage by Peter
Dickinson.)
( publisher’s official The Selected Letters of John Cage web page ) | (
official John Cage
web site )
Recommended
by Scott S.
Polley Music Library
Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?
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