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John Cage: The Cambridge Companion to John Cage (Cambridge Companions to Music)

John Cage: The Cambridge Companion to John Cage (Cambridge Companions to Music)
Library Shelf Location 18.CAGE
Publication Date Aug 2002
Description Notes: Part 1: Aesthetic contexts -- part 2: Sounds, words, images -- part 3: Interaction and influence. Contains 14 papers. Includes bibliographical references (p. 268-276) and index. Includes essays by Christopher Shultis, David W. Patterson, David W. Bernstein and others. Contents: Cage and America / David Nicholls -- Cage and Europe / Christopher Shultis -- Cage and Asia, history and sources / David W. Patterson -- Music I, to the late 1940s / David W. Bernstein -- Words and writings / David W. Patterson -- Towards infinity, Cage in the 1950s and 1960s / David Nicholls -- Visual art / Kathan Brown -- Music II, from the late 1960s / William Brooks -- Cage's collaborations / Leta E. Miller -- Cage and Tudor / John Holzaepfel -- Cage and high modernism / David W. Bernstein -- Music and society / William Brooks -- Cage and postmodernism / Alastair Williams -- No escape from heaven, John Cage as father figure / Kyle Gann. Summary: John Cage (1912-1992) was without doubt one of the most important and influential figures in twentieth-century music. Pupil of Schoenberg, Henry Cowell, Marcel Duchamp, and Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, among others, he spent much of his career in pursuit of an unusual goal: 'giving up control so that sounds can be sounds', as he put it. This book celebrates the richness and diversity of Cage's achievements - the development of the prepared piano and of the percussion orchestra, the adoption of chance and of indeterminacy, the employment of electronic resources and of graphic notation, and the questioning of the most fundamental tenets of Western art music. Besides composing around 300 works, he was also a prolific performer, writer, poet, and visual artist. Written by a team of experts, this Companion discusses Cage's background, his work, and its performance and reception, providing in sum a fully rounded portrait of a fascinating figure. Review: '... find this collection of 14 essays an amiable and accessible companion ... this delightful and informative book.' BBC Music Magazine Biography: David Nicholls is Professor of Music at the University of Southampton. Author of American Experimental Music, 1890-1940 (Cambridge, 1990) and editor of The Cambridge History of American Music (Cambridge, 1998) and numerous articles on topics in American music, he has also acted as contributing editor for the reissue of Henry Cowell's New Musical Resources (CUP, 1996) and The Whole World of Music: A Henry Cowell Symposium (1997). He is also editor of the journal American Music.
ISBN 9780521789684
Quantity 1
Pages xiii, 287 p. : ill. ; 26 cm.
Editor David Nicholls
Format Paperback
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Related Artist John Cage
Category Audio/Sound Art/Music
Artist's Nationality American (USA)
Language English

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