David Revill

Well.. I know Cage's work better than most, I reckon, & this is the only Cage bio I've read.. but I'm sure every other one must be better. In other words, if you want to read a Cage bio DON'T READ THIS ONE. Ok, we all make mistakes, but when I read stuff like "Cage lectured at the Outliners' Club* at Carnegie Tech, Oakland, in the Bay area of California; among those present was Andy Warhola" I get a pretty good idea of how shallowly researched this bk is. Carnegie Tech was in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh. It's now Carnegie-Mellon University - &, yes, that's where Warhol went to school b/c he was from Pittsburgh. Like, duh, dude.

[*reviewer's note: The Outlines gallery was an independent gallery in Pittsburgh. There's a bk about it. Here's an excerpt from my review of that: "This is the history of an art gallery / library / theatre [the bk uses British spelling here] of modern art in Pittsburgh from 1941-1947. The list of people who presented work there is awe-inspiring. I probably wd've been very excited to've been alive at that time & to've been able to attend their events. I love Pittsburgh & every time I learn more about its history the more fascinated I am. The Outlines gallery was clearly a project of exceptional passion & intelligence." - https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/418093-outlines-phenomenal-pittsburgh-cultu... ]… (meer)

I came across this by accident and it turned out to be a great little find.

Like many others, I have often wondered about the weird and wonderful names of London's tube stations, and even though my imagination never quite stretched far enough to conjure up scenes as impressive as Neil Gaiman's (see [b:Neverwhere|14497|Neverwhere|Neil Gaiman|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1348747943s/14497.jpg|16534]) I had my own little stories about some of them.

So, it was such a joy to read that some of the facts and actual history behind the stations and the names are just as weird and wonderful as any work of fiction.… (meer)

On August 29th, 1952, a new piece by composer John Cage was premiered at a benefit concert. The pianist sat down, set a stopwatch, and for three movements totaling 4 minutes and 33 seconds played nothing. A silent piece – though of course it was not all silence, as someone at the concert could hear the wind, the rain and the perplexed murmuring of the audience. 4’33’’, as it was known, produced polarized opinions. Was it “the pivotal composition of this century” or a lazy and cheap stunt? In this biography of Cage, David Revill shows how 4’33’’ was the natural progression of Cage’s works and beliefs. He gives an informative account of Cage’s development as a composer. Despite the fact that Cage collaborated with Revill and provided his recollections, Revill points out criticisms of Cage, questions his memories and on occasion covers things of which Cage seems dismissive. Cage had an interesting life. However, the prose here is flat and dry. Revill takes two slightly odd though not actively unpleasant perspectives on Cage – one of clinical analysis and one of philosophical interpretation. Cage is not a bad subject for philosophical musing but it leads to some writing that is jargon-filled and lacking in meaning. Revill’s at times clinical writing makes one feel that he finds Cage to be a good experimental subject rather than a fascinating composer and polymath.

Revill covers important events and people in Cage’s life but for the most part in a rather impersonal way. However, he states that a close examination of Cage’s personal life is not his aim. He is more interested in the diverse influences and philosophies that shaped Cage’s work. For example, Revill pointedly refuses to say anything about the events leading to Cage leaving his wife of ten years, Xenia, and starting a relationship with the dancer and choreographer Merce Cunningham. He merely says that is not in the scope of the book. One really gets no sense of what either relationship is like. I was disappointed that Revill doesn’t discuss the dances that Cunningham set to Cage’s music or other dance collaborations that he undertook. This is something that was likely outside the interest range of Revill so it’s hard to fault him for that. In contrast, he spends several pages discussing the philosophical background of Daisetsu Suzuki, whose lectures on Zen Buddhisms profoundly affected Cage’s beliefs and music.

Cage’s life is followed though most of the extended sections are analyses of his compositional methods, intent and ideas. He came from a peripatetic family with a father who had rather far-out ideas and inventions. He considered several careers and dropped out of Pomona College to run off to Europe. At times, Cage considered religion, architecture and art to be his calling. His varied interests continued throughout his life, as he befriended and collaborated with dancers and visual artists. Cage was frequently reviled by the music establishment (Revill notes that when the NY Philharmonic played one of his pieces, not only the audience but the orchestra showed contempt) but supported by avant-garde painters and modern dancers. One of the criticisms that Revill levels at Cage is that he was a name-dropper and this seems to be true, though he did have long and important friendships with many well-known artists. Schoenberg was an early teacher and Cage had friendly relations and fallouts with various bête noires of modern music – Edgard Varese, Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen. Through Cunningham, his circle included choreographers and dancers as well as, at different times, Lou Harrison, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Marcel Duchamp, Buckminster Fuller et al.

Cage and his wife Xenia moved frequently, participated in artist programs during the Depression and, in Seattle, started a percussion center. Cage’s early achievements were in pieces composed only for percussion that could be played by amateurs. Besides using all sorts of objects as instruments and seeking out world percussion pieces, Cage altered the traditional instruments – playing a gong in water or using a prepared piano. He frequently composed for prepared piano which involved treating the piano strings to produce variable, odd sounds when the keys were pressed. Cage was perpetually poor and determinedly so. In New York, he started the relationship with Cunningham which would last until his death in 1992. Cage showed an interest in everyday noises, thinking music was too far removed from real life. His engagement with Buddhism led to a desire to create music that did not communicate and removed composer preferences – hence 4’33’’. This also led to another practice for which he was known (or notorious) – creating pieces based on chance methods. As technology changed, Cage would use tape splicing, recorded sounds and computational methods for determining chance. There were also concerts that were almost like installation art pieces. Later on, Cage would move back to composing for traditional instruments and using traditional notation. He would incorporate more personal elements – creating pieces referring to progressive social issues – as well as elements that he had avoided earlier – harmony, improvisation.

Revill includes some bizarre personal stories of Cage – his passion for mushrooms led to his victory in an Italian game show, where he played his pieces and for 5 weeks answered increasingly difficult fungus-related questions; he was the subject of a performance art piece where the artist came up to him, cut his tie, shredded his clothes and poured a bottle of shampoo over his head. But his main interest is in Cage’s work and philosophy. Revill analyzes many of Cage’s quotes about his beliefs but often both the words and analysis come off as either BS or easy platitudes. You wouldn’t have to look too far for evidence that Cage is arrogant and dismissive. Still, he clearly was strongly influenced by Zen Buddhism and ideas of asceticism and he tried to fit his life to his ideas – macrobiotic diets, acceptance of various annoyances. Revill does criticize Cage and points out discrepancies and contradictions in his thoughts. For example, Cage pushes the idea that attachments and likes and dislikes lead to unhappiness. He tries to remove the involvement of memory and preferences in his work and claims it would work in life also. Revill points out that not using memory and preferences in mushroom hunting would lead to death.

The author is very effective, though, in showing the thought processes and work that went into Cage’s compositions – it helped explain results that some dismissed as lazy and thrown together. He also tackles some misconceptions about Cage’s work – one was that the music isn’t important, it’s all about the process. Revill tries to counter this idea. However, this belief does not appear in the book – I really had no idea what most of Cage’s music sounded like though Revill had copious descriptions of how instruments were prepared or what methods of chance Cage used. Descriptions of musical pieces are always difficult and must be even more so when instruments are things like cacti, but this was a major failing. I suppose Revill answers the question of why a composer would present a silent piece and how and why Cage turned to chance operations and indeterminacy (different from chance – each playing of the piece would sound different based on how parts were arranged). But the biographical information is flatly presented, one gets no sense of what listening to his music is like and sometimes the philosophical musings are too abstract. This book was helpful for me but I hesitate to recommend it.… (meer)