Re: John Cage recordings

[Matt Davignon <mdavig@sfsu.edu>]

I always thought that Cage was grouped in classical music because he's 
thought
of as a composer. I believe he was also trained in some classical schools. 
From
his training, he's descended from classical music. Somehow, when you 
compose
music for other musicians to play, and it's not rock, people go and call it
classical. This causes a lot of confusion especially when there's a 
sizeable
group of classical music fans who say that "Classical Music" is music from 
a
specific era, like the 1700's or so.

The problem is, there's been no official name for the folks who branched 
off of
classical music and composed music in different ways. I've seen "20th 
Century
Music" sections in some record stores, but that could also include things 
like
Aaron Copeland.

What do you call music by current composers who are classically trained, 
but now
compose music for computers? It's as complex as classical, but it sounds 
nothing
like baroque music. It often doesn't even sound like instruments! It's 
pretty
funny watching people try to describe it. They kind of squirm around and 
say,
"You know, THAT kind of music."

matt davignon

"Dennis W. Leas" wrote:

> After thinking about this a great deal (do I have too much time or 
>what?) I
> conclude it all depends on what you mean by classical music.  I consider
> many of Cage's ideas to be the antithesis of classical music, such as 
>using
> chance operations, incorporation of noise, minimizing the "intention" of 
>the
> composer, etc.  He spoke of his music as if it were an alternative to the
> classical approach.  To my ear, much of his music is the opposite of, 
>say,
> Bach's Fugues.  On the other hand, he studied composition and music 
>theory
> and notated his compositions.
>
> It makes me wonder where looper music will be classified in fifty years.
>
> Dennis Leas
> -----------------------------
> dennis@mdbs.com
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Unit Circle Media <unitcirc@unitcircle.com>
> To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com <Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com>
> Date: Friday, June 04, 1999 5:18 PM
> Subject: Re: John Cage recordings
>
> >Umm, I'm not sure where else you would find him.  While his music was
> >very progressive for it's time, it and he were completely grounded in
> >"traditional" classical music.