John Cage Book Of Days

Few twentieth-century artists have been as quotable as the ever-pithy composer, writer, philosopher and artist John Cage, and his aphorisms have become the mantras of fans the world over. "I have nothing to say/and I am saying it/and that is poetry as I know it" is just one of his most famous observations, regularly cited by artists and thinkers across all disciplines. Celebrating Cage's gift for playful, concise wisdom, and produced by the John Cage Trust under the guidance of its director, Laura Kuhn, the John Cage Book of Days is a 2010 pocket calendar that brings together the composer's words with noteworthy historical events in Cage's life, as well as tiny fragments drawn from his visual artworks. Bound in a soft cover that features one of his famous Ryoanji drawings, this Book of Days gathers all aspects of Cage's work into a volume that makes even the mundane task of managing a life pleasurable and fresh.

John Cage is the outstanding composer of avant-garde music today. The Saturday Review said of him: “Cage possesses one of the rarest qualities of the true creator- that of an original mind- and whether that originality pleases, irritates, amuses or outrages is irrelevant.” “He refuses to sermonize or pontificate. What John Cage offers is more refreshing, more spirited, much more fun-a kind of carefree skinny-dipping in the infinite. It’s what’s happening now.” –The American Record Guide “There is no such thing as an empty space or an empty time. There is always something to see, something to hear. In fact, try as we may to make a silence, we cannot. Sounds occur whether intended or not; the psychological turning in direction of those not intended seems at first to be a giving up of everything that belongs to humanity. But one must see that humanity and nature, not separate, are in this world together, that nothing was lost when everything was given away.”

Few twentieth-century artists have been as quotable as the ever-pithy composer, writer, philosopher and artist John Cage, and his aphorisms have become the mantras of fans the world over. "I have nothing to say/and I am saying it/and that is poetry as I know it" is just one of his most famous observations, regularly cited by artists and thinkers across all disciplines. Celebrating Cage's gift for playful, concise wisdom, and produced by the John Cage Trust under the guidance of Laura Kuhn, the John Cage Book of Days is a 2011 pocket calendar that brings together the composer's words with noteworthy historical events in Cage's life as well as tiny visual fragments drawn from his artworks. Bound in a soft cover graced with one of his essential Ryoanji drawings, this Book of Days gathers all aspects of Cage's work into a volume that makes even the mundane task of managing a life pleasurable and fresh.

Few twentieth-century artists have been as quotable as the composer, writer, philosopher, and visual artist John Cage, and his aphorisms have become mantras of fans the world over. Celebrating his gift for playful, concise wisdom, and published on the centenary of Cage's birth amid a huge wave of renewed interest in his life and work, The John Cage Book of Days 2012is a pocket calendar that brings together the composer's words with noteworthy historical events in his life. This year we celebrate his great love of food, drawing upon his anecdotally rich text entitled "Where Are We Eating? and What Are We Eating?" (first published in Empty Words: Writings '73-'78, in 1978). With little thumbnail images drawn from Cage's favorite cookbooks and a soft cover sporting one of his extraordinary edible drawings ("No. 1, 1990" ) made entirely of lemon, sesame seeds and mushrooms, everything in this calendar conspires to make even the mundane task of managing a life pleasurable, fresh and delicious.

A man of extraordinary and seemingly limitless talents—musician, inventor, composer, poet, and even amateur mycologist—John Cage became a central figure of the avant-garde early in his life and remained at that pinnacle until his death in 1992 at the age of eighty. Award-winning biographer Kenneth Silverman gives us the first comprehensive life of this remarkable artist. Silverman begins with Cage’s childhood in interwar Los Angeles and his stay in Paris from 1930 to 1931, where immersion in the burgeoning new musical and artistic movements triggered an explosion of his creativity. Cage continued his studies in the United States with the seminal modern composer Arnold Schoenberg, and he soon began the experiments with sound and percussion instruments that would develop into his signature work with prepared piano, radio static, random noise, and silence. Cage’s unorthodox methods still influence artists in a wide range of genres and media. Silverman concurrently follows Cage’s rich personal life, from his early marriage to his lifelong personal and professional partnership with choreographer Merce Cunningham, as well as his friendships over the years with other composers, artists, philosophers, and writers. Drawing on interviews with Cage’s contemporaries and friends and on the enormous archive of his letters and writings, and including photographs, facsimiles of musical scores, and Web links to illustrative sections of his compositions, Silverman gives us a biography of major significance: a revelatory portrait of one of the most important cultural figures of the twentieth century. !--?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /--

First performed at the midpoint of the twentieth century, John Cage’s 4'33", a composition conceived of without a single musical note, is among the most celebrated and ballyhooed cultural gestures in the history of modern music. A meditation on the act of listening and the nature of performance, Cage’s controversial piece became the iconic statement of the meaning of silence in art and is a landmark work of American music. In this book, Kyle Gann, one of the nation’s leading music critics, explains 4'33" as a unique moment in American culture and musical composition. Finding resemblances and resonances of 4'33" in artworks as wide-ranging as the paintings of the Hudson River School and the music of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, he provides much-needed cultural context for this fundamentally challenging and often misunderstood piece. Gann also explores Cage’s craft, describing in illuminating detail the musical, philosophical, and even environmental influences that informed this groundbreaking piece of music. Having performed 4'33" himself and as a composer in his own right, Gann offers the reader both an expert’s analysis and a highly personal interpretation of Cage’s most divisive work.

American writer, composer, artist, and philosopher John Cage (1912–92) is best known for his experimental composition 4’33,” a musical score in which the performer does not play an instrument during the duration of the piece. The purpose, Cage said, was for the audience to listen to the sounds of the environment around them while the piece was performed. Groundbreaking pieces such as 4’33”, as well as Sonatas and Interludes not only established Cage as a leading figure in the postwar avant-garde movement, but also cemented the enduring controversy surrounding his work. In this new biography, Rob Haskins explores Cage’s radical approach to art and aesthetics and his belief that everyday life and art are one and the same. Scrutinizing Cage’s emphasis on chance over intention, which rejected traditional artistic methods and caused an uproar among his peers, Haskins elucidates the ideas that lay behind these pillars of Cage’s work. Haskins also demystifies the influence of Eastern cultures, particularly Zen Buddhism, on Cage, including his use of the Chinese text I Ching as his standard composition tool in all his work after 1951. Adding to our understanding of the art, music, and ideas of the twentieth century, this book provides an engaging look at a man who continues to challenge and inspire artists worldwide.

John Cage is the outstanding composer of avant-garde music today. The Saturday Review said of him: “Cage possesses one of the rarest qualities of the true creator- that of an original mind- and whether that originality pleases, irritates, amuses or outrages is irrelevant.” “He refuses to sermonize or pontificate. What John Cage offers is more refreshing, more spirited, much more fun-a kind of carefree skinny-dipping in the infinite. It’s what’s happening now.” –The American Record Guide “There is no such thing as an empty space or an empty time. There is always something to see, something to hear. In fact, try as we may to make a silence, we cannot. Sounds occur whether intended or not; the psychological turning in direction of those not intended seems at first to be a giving up of everything that belongs to humanity. But one must see that humanity and nature, not separate, are in this world together, that nothing was lost when everything was given away.”