Re: [microsound] Cage and buddhism

["Timothy W. Duncan" <insite@xxxxxxxxxx>]

I have a few short and incomplete thoughts about this. 

First, Cage studied Japanese Zen with D. T. Suzuki. As I understand this,
Suzuki (not to be confused with Suzuki Roshi of San Francisco) was a
scholar of Buddhism, but not a practitioner himself. Cage attended Suzuki's
lectures in NYC.

What I think Cage got from this is his emphasis on allowing sounds to be
sounds and not to manipulate them into a sequence of programmed listener
responses. In order to fulfill this, he needed to structure his choice
making according to some outside mechanism (such as flipping coins or
following the contour of a map) and then let the sonic results stand on
their own.

Critics have argued that the results still reflect Cage's own preferences.
However, it cannot be argued that this approach gave Cage considerable
leverage to confront both American and Continental composers about their
links to Western musical tradition. Karlheinz Stockhausen seems to have
been particularly impressed by Cage's challenge.

In a sense, Cage's absorption of Asian values was a form of appropriation.
For example, he uses the I Ching (a Taoist instrument, not a Zen
instrument) to generate whole pieces, such as Music of Changes,  without
any real reflection on the meaning of the I Ching or its application to
life. The same seems to have been true about his use of Zen. However, it
might be that he simply chose not to reveal this aspect of his relationship
with these profound systems.

-- Tim



At 11:56 AM 12/22/00 -0800, you wrote:
>If I am correct Cage studied buddhism.
>
>Anyone comment on how his study (his spiritually)
>reflected on his work?
>
>Kerry
>
>--
>Kerry Uchida
>
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