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Wed 1 Nov, 2006 03:42 pm
Hi,
Can you tell me if John Cage lived on Telegraph Hill in the 60s or 70s?
(or can you tell me how to find out?)
and,
Can you tell me if he ever did a ... music happening where his music was played on the radio and people were to turn their house lights on and off in time to the music?
I think that was supposed to have been in the 60s.
Here's hoping!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_cage
is a start - check the links at the bottom. Posting this in Music might get a response too.
I always liked Cage's 2.47, I even learnt to play it.
Wow, I'm impressed.
Yes, I did Wikipedia before I came here. I also read a couple interviews.
ConsiderThis wrote:Wow, I'm impressed.
I screwed up, I meant I learnt to play 4'33" - way to ruin a good joke with a bad memory hinge.
Quote:John Milton Cage (September 5, 1912 - August 12, 1992) was an American experimental music composer, writer and visual artist. He is most widely known for his 1952 composition 4'33", whose three movements are performed without playing a single note.
Get it? 4'33" is 4 minutes and thirty three seconds of silence. What a crazy dude. I bet the 12 inch club remix was fantastic.
It doesn't sound unlike Cage, but I just don't think he was mainstream enough to get played on the radio.
Oh, right... the way I heard it, it was a San Francisco station and appealed to people in his neighborhood, which I heard was Telegraph Hill at the time...
how do you think I could find out if he used to live there?
according to this
interview, he was certainly in the area
JH: You weren't in any public works arts projects that were going on at that time?
JC: No. No, that came later. My connection with the WPA was entertaining. I went to San Francisco to the music department, and I'd already worked a good deal in the field of percussion music. I said I wanted a job on the WPA. And they said. "But you're not a musician." And I said, "I deal with sound. Where should I go?" And they said, "Try the recreation department." (laughs) So I did. And I worked with children after school hours in Telegraph Hill. The Italians. The Black kids in another part of town. And the Chinese in Chinatown. And I used to get a splitting headache from the Italian children. I'd bring them instruments to play, and things I had made, and they'd smash them. And I'd always left that session with a headache. But the Chinese people I got along with beautifully. The blacks were so gifted that they had no need of me. But I always remember how well I got along with the Chinese people. The only trouble was that the school was Catholic, and the sisters were not confident that my influence on the children was good. (laughs) So one day one of these tiny children came to me and said, "You're not teaching us anything about counterpoint." (laughs) And they couldn't have even known the word. So then the next thing I knew they were gone.
I haven't been able to find a link between telegraph hill and john cage in google scholar or google books....
The music index online has 1245 John Cage articles - not one mentions Telegraph Hill.
Oh.... I don't know either of those reference sources.
Thank you...
ConsiderThis wrote:
See, here's the thing, Even back then well known people probably didn't publicize where they resided.
Maybe I should also look for Merce Cunningham...
Aye, but music scholars would have written articles about the Telegraph Hill piece if involved that neighbour playing with their light switches - I should confirm that Music Index Online is published by Harmonie Park Press and contains references
Quote:Published since 1949 [...] from more than 775 international music periodicals from over 40 countries in 22 languages.
In additon Grove music online has no reference to Telegraph Hill at all.
I tried but no luck.
Try joining the John Cage list and searching their archives or asking the question there.
http://list.mail.virginia.edu/mailman/listinfo/silence
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