- Additional Authors
- Found In
- Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection.
- Description
- 1 streaming audio file (51 minutes) : digital, mono
- Summary
- (0:00-8:00) Unidentified musical recording of prepared piano and whistle (or recorder) ; (8:01-8:23) Recording gap with one tone.
- (8:24-51:04) Recording begins abruptly with the end of a question [nearly inaudible] from an unidentified speaker during a class discussion in a dance studio at Ohio University; John Cage speaks about the influences of Eastern philosophies on his artistic and personal perspective on modern lifestyles, especially in relation to interconnectedness and natural ecologies; Cage speaks about closed and open plant communities, and how humans impact these; he tells a short anecdote about foraging for wild foods along a thruway; Cage makes an analogy between the language used to describe fungi with musical terms such as songs and noise; his interest in using noise for composition, especially in relation to his earliest performed works for percussion orchestra; Cage identifies some of the percussion instruments, both traditional and unconventional; more on noise, music and the neutral term, sound; short anecdote using an example of Basho's poetry in relation to paying attention to sound in the world; his opinion on race relations, including theories on how to create deeper understanding between people as related to his philosophy of sound; briefly, Cage's perspective on government as informed by his philosophy of music; brief discussion, including unidentified audience questions [low volume but audible], about traditional definitions of music in relation to harmony, use of the human voice and types of singing; he gives an example of how he altered a sound recording of a baby crying and the result; Cage's belief that artistic ideas are applicable and meaningful in other realms, such as the natural world or society; his questioning of conventional dance and musical forms, especially the ABA form as taught by Louis Horst; [ca. 30:23, brief break in the recording]; more on musical form in relationship to events in his daily life; more on the multiplicity of meanings within language; Cage's interest in challenging audiences with his experimental artistic ideas; briefly, the philosophical influences of Marshall McLuhan and Zen Buddhism; several anecdotes on the artist's intention, including a Chinese folk tale and a Zen Buddhist tale; begins another Buddhist tale [ca. 40:08, brief break in the recording]; more on the artist's intention in relation to improving the broader human condition and the environment; briefly, his interest in Buckminster Fuller's thinking and work; [unidentified audience speakers respond, very low volume and partially inaudible]; Cage's intention that his music provides openings to experiences; an anecdote on a high school audition experience, his own relationship to his singing voice, and a later composition that he wrote and sang for a Merce Cunningham piece; the state of musical criticism, including his admiration for the writing of critic Virgil Thomson; [microphone movements slightly interfere with recording clarity]; more on the influence of McLuhan's writings; Cage's strategy of ignoring the various criticisms of his work.
- Alternative Title
- Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection. Audio materials.
- Subjects
- Genre/Form
- Lecture.
- Live sound recordings.
- Note
- Title provided by cataloger based on audition and handwritten notes on original container. The relationship, if any, between the musical recording and the class discussion is unidentified.
- Handwritten notes on original container: "Side #1, Wortman - Jan. 1970, Ceramic Kiln, 3 3/4 IPS, 000-68 ; Cage - Jan. 20, 1970, Class Discussion, Dance Studio, 3 3/4 IPS, #70/75-555".
- Sound quality is good; John Cage's voice is soft yet audible throughout the recording. Other unidentified speakers respond to Cage throughout the recording, and at times they are inaudible due to their distance from the recording microphone.
- Donor's inventory number: R131.
- Access (note)
- Patrons can access streaming audio only on site at NYPL Research Libraries.
- Source (note)
- Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation
- Linking Entry (note)
- Forms part of the Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection.
- Call Number
- *LT-7-A 2363
- OCLC
- 880675578
- Author
Cage, John, speaker.
- Title
Classroom lecture and discussion at Ohio University ; and, unidentified prepared piano music. / by John Cage.
- Production
January 20, 1970.
- Playing Time
005104
- Type of Content
spoken word
- Type of Medium
audio
- Type of Carrier
audiotape reel
online resource
- Digital File Characteristics
audio file
- Event
Recorded in a dance studio at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, 1970 January 20.
- Original Version
Archival original: (1 audiotape reel (67 minutes) : analog, 3 3/4 ips, half track, mono ; 7 in.) in *LT-7-A 2363.
- Restricted Access
Patrons can access streaming audio only on site at NYPL Research Libraries.
- Linking Entry
Forms part of the Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection.
- Local Note
Transferred from original open tape reel by the New York Public Library's Audio and Moving Image Preservation (PAMI) sound engineering staff at the Library for the Performing Arts on January 10, 2014. To create the streaming file, the sound engineers edited out the recording silences in the preservation file, thus the discrepancies in length between the preservation file and the streaming file.
- Source
Gift; Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation, 2011-2012.
- Connect to:
- Added Author
Cage, John, composer.
Ohio University.
Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation, donor.
- Added Title
Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection. Audio materials.
- Found In:
Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection.
- Research Call Number
*LT-7-A 2363