on 11/15/01 2:24 AM, Scott deLahunta at sdela@ahk.nl wrote: > Dance makers interested in perception (of the watcher) may use stillness in > the same way John Cage did with 4:33 -- because your ear doesn't focus on > the sound of the piano you attend to all other noises. Cage was explicitly > political with his silence to enable an emancipation from traditional forms > of music. I would hesitate to say that Cage was "explicitly" political with 4'33" or really any other piece. There were/are political implications from these works to be sure, but for Cage, 4'33" was the result of a highly refined and closely followed compositional process in which he was attempting to distance himself and his ego from the choices made. I must obviously agree that political statements were made, however. 4'33" certainly forever changed the music world, and also touched on many other issues in art and culture (see Jonathan Katz's "John Cage's Queer Silence"). Too often though, Cage's political/philosophical contributions overshadow the fact that his compositional process is what led him to these pieces. Furthermore the pieces themselves have great musical value that is sometimes overlooked. A couple of other points that might be thrown into the mix: It was Rauschenberg's white paintings that finally led Cage to 4'33", as Cage discusses in his book, Silence (interestingly enough, just before the Lecture on Nothing section.) Also, 4'33" was successful because of the attention it was given in composition and performance. It is a very structured work in three movements, and was premiered by Cage's long-time collaborator, pianist David Tudor, who took the work very seriously. Lastly, since our ears hear sound from all angles around us, I would argue that our ability to attend to "other" sounds in a performance space is greater than our ability to attend to other (off-stage) visual stimuli. A performer on stage is in such control of an audience's attention, that it seems a bit difficult to imagine that performer's stillness allowing the audience to attend all other stimuli in the space, as they could perhaps do with sound. Stillness on stage often (for me, at least) demands even more focused visual attention of the audience. Of course, this presupposes an on-stage performance, and these issues would be different for site-specific work. Anyway, I have nothing to say and I am saying it... Best, Peter
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