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Notes
1 I am influenced by Douglas Kahn’s research into artistic sound and energy. See Kahn, Noise, Water, Meat; and Kahn, Earth Sound Earth Signal. Similarly, the scope of this article takes a particular influence from Branden W. Joseph’s inquiry into Cage’s concepts of indeterminacy and chance. See: Joseph, “Chance, Indeterminacy, Multiplicity.”
2 I use this term as defined by Lucy Lippard and John Chandler. See Lippard and Chandler, “The Dematerialization of Art.”
3 For more on Cage, see: Pritchett, The Music of John Cage.
4 I use this term as defined and delineated in the writings of Liz Kotz and Branden W. Joseph. See Kotz, Words to be Looked At; and Joseph, Experimentations.
5 For an overview of Greenberg’s aesthetic theory, see: Clark, T. J. “Clement Greenberg's Theory of Art,” 139–156.
6 I defer to Peter Osborne’s distinction between inclusive/strong and inclusive/weak paradigms of conceptualism. See Osborne, “Conceptual Art and/as Philosophy,” 48–49.
7 See Cox, “Beyond Representation and Signification;” and Kim-Cohen, In the Blink of an Ear.
8 Flynt, “Essay: Concept Art (Provisional Version).”
9 See Piekut, “Demolish Serious Cultures! Henry Flynt and Workers World Party.”
10 Flynt’s interpretation of Cage has been described by Branden W. Joseph as a mutual interest in acognitive forms. See: Joseph, Beyond the Dream Syndicate, 170–76.
11 For more on Drip Music, see: Kotz, Words to be Looked At, 79.
12 I make a distinction between twentieth century sonic art history and its earlier forms from the ancient, medieval, early modern, and post-Enlightenment eras.
13 For an overview of Cage’s influence on art history, see: Robinson, John Cage, October Files 12.
14 See Kotz, “Post-Cagean Aesthetics and the ‘Event’ Score;” Joseph, “Chance, Indeterminacy, Multiplicity.”
15 Cage’s teaching at Black Mountain College was also influential. See Diaz, The Experimenters.
16 See Robinson, “John Cage and Investiture;” Lewis, “Improvised Music after 1950;” and Piekut, “Chance and Certainty.”
17 See Kotz, “Post-Cagean Aesthetics and the “Event” Score;” Kim, “In No Uncertain Musical Term;” Joseph, “Chance, Indeterminacy, Multiplicity;” Altshuler, “The Cage Class.”
18 Kotz, “Post-Cagean Aesthetics,” 56–57.
19 Joseph, “Chance, Indeterminacy, Multiplicity,” 212.
20 Robinson, “The Sculpture of Indeterminacy.”
21 Higgins, “Intermedia.”
22 Lippard and Chandler, “The Dematerialization of Art.”
23 See Kostelanetz, The Theatre of Mixed-Means; and Kostelanetz, Metamorphosis in the Arts.
24 Joseph, Experimentations, 133–134.
25 Higgins, “On Cage’s Classes,” 122–124. Higgins is quoted in Joseph, Experimentations, 133–134.
26 Dick Higgins, “Intending,” 2.
27 As Kotz suggests, the lecture material reflects language used in the German new music journal Die Reihe, which was edited by electronic composers Herbert Eimert and Karlheinz Stockhausen. Eimert and Stockhausen formed the Westdeutschen Rundfunks (WDR) electronic music studio in Cologne. See Kotz, “Post-Cagean Aesthetics,” 65; and Kim, “In No Uncertain Musical Terms,” 143.
28 See Kotz, Words to be Looked At.
29 See John Cage, “Lecture on Nothing,” 109-126.
30 Kotz, “Post-Cagean Aesthetics,” 57.
31 Cage, John. 4”33”. For information on David Tudor’s original performance see: Fetterman, John Cage's Theatre Pieces, 74.
32 Kotz, “Post-Cagean Aesthetics,” 57.
33 Kostelanetz, Theatre of Mixed-Means, 19.
34 Kostelanetz, Metamorphosis, 14.
35 Indeed, focusing on acoustical materiality – sounds in space heard by people – might position the paradigm of a theatre of mixed means as awkwardly medium-specific.
36 Feldman quoted in Ilić, “Morton Feldman: Interview with Françoise Esselier.”
37 For a nuanced view of Cage and Duchamp, see Joseph, Experimentations, 137–138.
38 See Cage, “26 Statements Re Duchamp”; and Lotringer, “Becoming Duchamp.”
39 See Kim-Cohen, In the Blink of an Ear.
40 See Cox, “Beyond Representation,” 145–161.
41 See Crawford, Evenings on and Off the Roof.
42 The compositions of Schoenberg, along with others like Alban Berg and post-serial works of composers like Anton Webern and Karlheinz Stockhausen, dominated in the United States through the Second World War. It should be noted that twelve tone serialism is but one model of serialism and that these terms are not synonymous.
43 See Schoenberg. Style and Idea, 218.
44 Schoenberg’s friendship with Kandinsky is well established in art history.
45 Cage famously claimed that his teacher suggested he would never be a composer because he had no sense of harmony. See Hicks, “John Cage's Studies with Schoenberg.”
46 Europeans like Karlheinz Stockhausen and Sylvano Bussotti were also prominent in the area of percussion ensemble music, but their retaining of compositional authority, contrasting Cage, highlighted a disconnect between American and European traditions.
47 Higgins, “Intending,” 2.
48 See Broyles, Mavericks and Other Traditions in American Music; and Hicks. Henry Cowell, Bohemian.
49 Once Cowell was asked “Didn’t anybody ever tell you that you select tones for a chord – you don’t just use all the tones at once?” His response: “Yes, I often do select tones but [sometimes] I want them all.” See Cowell, “Henry Cowell Musical Autobiography.”
50 Cowell, “Percussion Music.”
51 Cowell, “Our Inadequate Notation,” 244–248.
52 Varèse and Wen-Chung, “The Liberation of Sound,” 18.
53 Composers of new percussion music like Cowell, Cage and Harrison appropriated the rhythms, timbres, and performance methods of music of Africa, Latin America, and China, establishing new music by appropriating the otherness of non-Western traditions.
54 Cage, “How the Piano Came to be Prepared,” 8.
55 For more on the relationship between Cowell and Cage, see: Miller, “Henry Cowell and John Cage: Intersections and Influences, 1933–1941.”
56 See Cage, “How the Piano Came to be Prepared,” 7–10.
57 Gann, No Such Thing as Silence, 7–8.
58 Higgins, “Introduction.”
59 See Cowell, “Henry Cowell Musical Autobiography.”
60 Hitchcock, “Henry Cowell’s ‘Ostinato Pianissimo’,” 25.
61 Higgins, “Introduction,” 26.
62 Ibid., 27.
63 Ibid., 26–28.
64 Ibid.
65 See Higgins and Zurbrugg, “Looking Back,” 19–32; and Kim, “In No Uncertain Terms,” 141.
66 Higgins, “Introduction,” 28.
67 Ibid.
68 Joseph, Experimentations, 134–145.
69 See Higgins, “Introduction.”
70 The Something Else Press was co-managed with Alison Knowles. See: Cowell, New Musical Resources.
71 See Gordon, “Camille Reports Again,” 2; and Chase, “New Musical Resources – Yesterday and Today,” 101–109.
72 For a poignant discussion of Stockhausen’s relation to Cage and Brecht, see: Kotz, “Post-Cagean Aesthetics and the “Event” Score,” 64–67.
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Charles Eppley
Charles Eppley holds a PhD in Art History & Criticism from Stony Brook University. Charles researches the history of sound in modern and contemporary art, focusing on the interchanges between music, sculpture, and performance. He has taught courses in art history, music, and media studies at The New School for Social Research, Pratt Institute, and Stony Brook University. His writings appear in Art in America, Rhizome, and Avant.org. Email: [email protected]