I love your post for many reasons, Dom. For one, I wish that I could help the students I teach cultivate the kind of openness to music you've developed, only applied to poetry. Second, since my wife and I are now grandparents, it reminds me of the responsibility that I have to my grandchildren to help them develop into full and thriving human persons. Thanks!
I’m glad you enjoyed the post Donald. Congratulations on being grandparents. I’m sure your students and family are already inspired by your love for poetry. I wasn’t aware of such strong positive influences in my life until I was older.
Thanks Stephen, staying on topic, I heard Pauline Oliveros’s music for the first time at a concert at the Royal College of Music. They turned off the lights and played Bye Bye Butterfly in what must have been winter as I remember being a bit cold. It was wonderful; the natural acoustics and live audience really brought the piece to life.
Love the stories about this important family matriarch in your life. You know, I have a few recordings of Cage's music that I often return to, because sometimes that's just the only thing I want to hear.
I'm yet to find my way into listening to Cage's compositions with more than intellectual appreciation, but when I see documentation of some of the experimental live events he put on then I get a much more emotional response. But he's very quoteable and I think that is an underappreciated quality of many intellectuals.
I've also noticed that when brainstorming non-deterministic music/art ideas with someone knowledgeable, I'll find the most simple but elegant ideas often elicit a response of 'oh Cage already did that'. I think this carries a lesson that, as well as talented, he was also in the right moment in history for conceptual music. Once the possibility of embracing chance and moving beyond the attempted attainment towards a fixed ideal, an open orchard with lots of low hanging fruit emerges. For me, it's a reminder that we're in a different moment of history and have our own open fields to explore.
When I'm using the duolingo language-learning app, my bluetooth headphones keep suspending their connection in between the audio clips. It takes them half a second to wake up each time and I miss the beginning of the audio. So I play 4'33 on a loop in the background in Spotify to keep the audio connection alive with silence, and at the end of the year that invariably crops up as one of my most listened-to. There's no room ambience in the recording. In pure digital form, it still manages to reveal the difference between not playing and playing nothing. (I'm not sure which clever person has managed to take the performer royalty but presumably the Cage Estate gets a cut each time for the composition. Spotify are clamping down on non-music functional tracks like white noise, so Cage may have cornered the market for silent audio here.)
One of my favourite posts of your Dom. On the topic of challenging oneself to new music that doesn't immediately give gratification: I'd love to read more about how you choose which music to challenge yourself with.
I love your post for many reasons, Dom. For one, I wish that I could help the students I teach cultivate the kind of openness to music you've developed, only applied to poetry. Second, since my wife and I are now grandparents, it reminds me of the responsibility that I have to my grandchildren to help them develop into full and thriving human persons. Thanks!
I’m glad you enjoyed the post Donald. Congratulations on being grandparents. I’m sure your students and family are already inspired by your love for poetry. I wasn’t aware of such strong positive influences in my life until I was older.
Your grandmother was a wise woman, Dom.
John Cage and Pauline Oliveros deeply changed how I think about music, and even more importantly, how I listen to music.
Thanks Stephen, staying on topic, I heard Pauline Oliveros’s music for the first time at a concert at the Royal College of Music. They turned off the lights and played Bye Bye Butterfly in what must have been winter as I remember being a bit cold. It was wonderful; the natural acoustics and live audience really brought the piece to life.
Love the stories about this important family matriarch in your life. You know, I have a few recordings of Cage's music that I often return to, because sometimes that's just the only thing I want to hear.
A fellow New Yorker as well! It’s interesting how certain music suits certain moods and times in one’s life.
There are some really valuable nuggets in this story. Well told. Thanks for sharing :)
I'm yet to find my way into listening to Cage's compositions with more than intellectual appreciation, but when I see documentation of some of the experimental live events he put on then I get a much more emotional response. But he's very quoteable and I think that is an underappreciated quality of many intellectuals.
I've also noticed that when brainstorming non-deterministic music/art ideas with someone knowledgeable, I'll find the most simple but elegant ideas often elicit a response of 'oh Cage already did that'. I think this carries a lesson that, as well as talented, he was also in the right moment in history for conceptual music. Once the possibility of embracing chance and moving beyond the attempted attainment towards a fixed ideal, an open orchard with lots of low hanging fruit emerges. For me, it's a reminder that we're in a different moment of history and have our own open fields to explore.
When I'm using the duolingo language-learning app, my bluetooth headphones keep suspending their connection in between the audio clips. It takes them half a second to wake up each time and I miss the beginning of the audio. So I play 4'33 on a loop in the background in Spotify to keep the audio connection alive with silence, and at the end of the year that invariably crops up as one of my most listened-to. There's no room ambience in the recording. In pure digital form, it still manages to reveal the difference between not playing and playing nothing. (I'm not sure which clever person has managed to take the performer royalty but presumably the Cage Estate gets a cut each time for the composition. Spotify are clamping down on non-music functional tracks like white noise, so Cage may have cornered the market for silent audio here.)
One of my favourite posts of your Dom. On the topic of challenging oneself to new music that doesn't immediately give gratification: I'd love to read more about how you choose which music to challenge yourself with.