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Silencing the Sounded Self: John Cage and the Intentionality of NonintentionAuthor(s): Christopher ShultisSource: The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 79, No. 2 (Summer, 1995), pp. 312-350Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/742249.
Accessed: 09/06/2011 12:26
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8/11/2019 Cage and the Intentionality of Nonintention - Shultis
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i lenc ing
t h o u n d e d
S e l f
J o h n
C a g e
n d t h
Intentionality
Nonintention
Christopher
hultis
"Whatwe
require
s
silence;
but
whatsilence
requires
s
that I
go
on
talking."
-John
Cage,
"Lecturen
Nothing"
This
essay
will
address
ohnCage's
nclusivedesire
o allowroom or
silence
in
both
his
musical
ompositions
nd his written exts.
Cage
himselfnoted that
"silence"
ad been a
lifelong
concern:
I've
ately
been
hinking gain
bout
ilence,
hich s
the title
of
my
first
bookof
my
own
writings.
When was welve
ears
ld
I
wrote
hat
orationhat
wona
high
school
ratorical
ontest
n
Southern alifor-
nia.
It
was
called"Other
eople
Think,"
nd t
was
about ur
relation
to theLatinAmericanountries.What proposedas ilence nthe
part
of
the United
States,
n
order
hat
we couldhear
whatother
peo-
ple
think,
and hat
hey
don't
hink
he
way
we
do,
particularly
bout
us. Butcould
ou
say
hen
hat,
as
a
twelve
ear
ld,
that
I
was
pre-
pared
o devote
my
ifeto
silence,
nd o chance
perations?
t'shard
to
say.1
Proving lifelong
devotion
o
chance
operations,
Cage's
methodof
achieving
ilence,
wouldbe
difficult
o
accomplish.
However,
Cage's
entirebodyof workhas, from he verybeginning,been devoted o the
inclusionof silence
n
an
otherwise
ound-filled orld.
One of the first
ways
n
which
Cage
allowed ilence
into music
was
by
emphasizing
uration nstead
of
harmony.
n
the 1930s
Cage
studied
with
Arnold
Schoenberg,
who
immigrated
o
Los
Angeles
ust
prior
o World
War
II.
Regarding
is
studies,
Cage
wrote:"After
had
been
studying
with
him for two
years,
Schoenberg
aid:
In
order
to write
music,
you
musthave
a
feeling
or
harmony.'
explained
o
him that
I
had no
feeling
or
harmony.
He then saidthat
I
would
always
ncounter
n
obstacle,
hat
it
wouldbe as
though
I
came to a
wall
through
which I
could
not
pass.
I said:
In
that case
I
will devote
my
life to
beating
my
head
against
that wall.'
"2
Cage
found two allies
in
his battle
with
harmony:
the French
composer
Erik Satie and Anton
Webern,
a formerstudent of Schoen-
312
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Silencing
he
Sounded
Self
313
berg.
In a lecture
given
at BlackMountain
College
n
1948,
Cage
wrote:
In the field
of
structure,
he field
of
the definitionf
parts
nd
heir
relationo
a
whole,
here
hasbeen
only
one new
dea ince
Beethoven.
Andthatnew dea
can
be
perceived
n the work
f AntonWebern
nd
Erik
Satie.
With
Beethoven,
he
parts
f a
composition
ere
defined
y
means f
harmony.
WithSatie
and
Webern
hey
aredefined
y
means
of time
engths.
The
question
f
structure
s so
basic,
and
t
is so
important
o
be in
agreement
bout
t,
that one
mustnow ask:Was
Beethovenight rareWebern ndSatieright? answermmediately
and
unequivocally,
eethoven
as n
error,
ndhis
influence,
hich
hasbeenas extensive s
it
is
lamentable,
asbeen
deadening
o the art
of
music.3
For
Cage,
duration ecamea meansof
getting
around he
difficulty
f
"having
no
feeling
or
harmony."
And
by
citing
Webern,
Cage
was
able
to use
Schoenberg's
most
famous
pupil
as an
example
of how
harmony
was an erroneous
method
of
structuring
usic.
It was silence thatpointedCage away roma harmony nd
toward
duration.
According
o
Cage, harmony
s a
structuring
ethod
does not include ilence:
If
you
consider
hat
sounds
characterized
y
ts
pitch,
ts
loudness,
ts
timbre,
nd
ts
duration,
nd hat
silence,
which s
the
opposite
nd,
therefore,
he
necessary
artner
f
sound,
s
characterized
nly
by
its
duration,
ou
will
be
drawn
o
the conclusion
hat
of
the four
harac-
teristics
f
the materialf
music, uration,
hat
s,
time
ength,
s the
most undamental.ilence annot eheardnterms fpitchorhar-
mony:
t is
heard
n
terms
f
time
ength.4
At
this
point,
one
could
very
well
questionCage's
ogic.
Does
it
followthat since
duration,
y
nature,
ncludes
ilence,
while
harmony,
n
and of
itself,
does
not,
duration s
the
only
possible
approach
o
structuring
usic?
Obviously
ot.
However,
t
does
shed
light
on
Cage's
motivation
behind
believing
hat such
was
the case.
Harmony equires
he
imposition
f
unity
upon
musical
material. t
is a
humanly
ontrivedmethodof
writing
musicwhichcannotbe
directly
found
in
nature.
C-major
chords
may
be
naturally
derived,
but
their structural
relationships,
as
found
in
so-called tonal
music,
obey
a
carefully
and
humanly
constructed
system
of rules.
Cage,
on the
other
hand,
was
looking
for
justification
outside of
any
musical
tradition.He
was
attempting
to uncover a structural
connection
between the mak-
ing
of music
and the natural world. It
had
little to do with how
music
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314
TheMusical
uarterly
is
conceived;
t
was
instead
an
attempt
o uncover
how
music s
per-
ceived.In otherwords,Cagewaspayingmoreattention o howwe
actually
hearmusic
han
he
was to how we think
aboutmusic.
When we
considerhow music s
heard,
unrelated o how it is
made
(if
that
is
possible),
hen, indeed,
durations
more
undamental
than
harmony.
We hearsound
and
silence,
and we can
do
so
directly
with
neither
hought
nor
preconception.
o
hear
harmony,
s
a
pre-
conceived tructure
f
relationships
etween
ones,
requires
process
that includesa
knowledge
f certain
musical
procedures
nd traditions
that have as muchto do withthinkingas theydo withhearing.
In
1948,
when he wrotehis "Defense
f
Satie,"
Cage
still
saw
composition
s a unifierof
experience,
"an
activity
ntegrating
he
opposites,
he rational nd the
irrational."5
nd,
in
another
ext,
Cage
extends
such
abstractionsnto
concretemusical erms:
"The
material f music s soundand
silence.
Integrating
hese is
compos-
ing."6
However,
by looking
owardnatural
ather han human
designs,
he was
already
n
a
path away
romsuch
ordered
rocedures:
"there
s a
tendency
n
my
composition
means
away
rom
deasof
order owardno ideasof order."'7n 1958Cagedelivered lectureat
Darmstadtntitled
"Composition
s
Process,"
romwhichthe
previous
two citations
are
drawn.
The first
part
of this lecturediscusses
hanges
in
his
approach
o
composition.
These
changes
describe
process
away
rom"ideas f
order,"
ot
away
rom
order
tself. The
question
continually
aised
n
Cage's
work
s
the
question
of whose
rder
will
determine he courseof the art
experience.
And
the issueof
duration
is
a first
tep
away
rom
humanderivation nd
human
control.
From he 1930sonward,Cageusedwhatis knownassquare oot
form,
one
of
his
first
attempts
t
structuring
usic
by
duration ather
than
by
pitch.
Macrostructurend microstructure
oincide,
so
that
if
there
are
fourmeasures
er
unit therewill be four
units;
and
if
the
internal
phrasing
f the
bars
s
1-2-1,
the externaldivisionof
parts
(within
the
large
tructure
f
four
units)
will
also be
1-2-1.
For
example,
n
his FirstConstruction
n
Metal,
hereare sixteenmeasures
in
each
structural nit. To make he
square
oot,
there
are,
conse-
quently,
sixteen
units.
The
large
tructures divided
ymmetrically
s
follows:
our, three,
two, three, four,
thus
totaling
ixteen,
and each
individual
nit is
similarly
ivided.This
method,
used
n
mostof
Cage's
music
during
the 1930s and
1940s,
eventually
produces
a for-
mal structure
ndependent
of its content.
Content,
in this
period,
was
still
primarily
a matterof
taste,
as can be
seen,
for
example,
in
Cage's
selection of
piano preparations
or
his Sonatas
and Interludes:
The
materials,
the
piano preparations,
were chosen
as
one chooses shells
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Silencing
heSounded
elf
315
while
walking
along
a beach.
The formwasas natural s
my
taste
permitted."On the otherhand,regardinghe formof the sonatas,
Cage
wrote:
"[N]othing
bout he structurewasdetermined
y
the
materials
which wereto occur
n
it;
it was
conceived,
n
fact,
so that
it couldbe as
well
expressed
y
the absenceof these materials s
by
their
presence."8
Interchangeability
f
content
in
a fixedstructures
equally
appar-
ent
in his "Lecture
n
Nothing"
1950),
written
oon
afterhe
wrote
Sonatas ndInterludes
1946-48).
This lecture s
the first
published
instance n whichCagetookstructuraldeas rommusicand used
them
in the
creation
of texts. And it is this
approach
hat
character-
izesa
continuing
elationship
etween
Cage's
musicand his
texts
through
he
mid-1970s
at
which
point
this
study
ends):
"In
writing
my
'literary'
exts,
I
essentially
makeuse
of the same
composing
means
as in
my
music."9
The "Lecture
n
Nothing"
uses
square
oot formand is
described
as
such
by Cage,
in
a
way
characteristicf
many
of his
later
exts,
through
n introductiono the
published
ecture:
"Thereare
four
measuresn eachline and twelve inesin each unit of the
rhythmic
structure.There
are
forty-eight
uch
units,
each
having
orty-eight
measures.
he whole is divided nto five
large
parts,
n
the
proportion
7,
6,
14, 14,
7.
The
forty-eight
measures f
each unit
are likewise o
divided."10We are thus
informed f
exactly
how
Cage
made he
structure.
n this
case,
an
integrating
f
rationaland irrational
would
see
structure
form)
as rationaland content as
irrational,
r what
Cage
at that time
regarded
s the
integration
f mind and
heart.
11
As a formalnvention,Cage'suse of square ootformdoessug-
gest
the directionof music
irst,
text second.
However,
n
keeping
with
my
thesis
that
music
and text
interactone with
another,
Cage's
"Lecture n
Nothing"
contains
certain
mportant
deas
not
previously
discernible
n his
musical
work.
Firstand
foremost
s
the
distinction
between
"having
nothing
to
say
and
saying
t"12
and the
"integration
of
opposites."
What still
applies
as
a formal dea
no
longer
holds as
content.
Cage'swriting
s
nonintentional,
whereas
ntegration,
till
present
n
the
relationbetween
orm
and
content,
demands
very
specific
ntention.
Thus,
while
Cage's
nnovations
egarding
omposi-
tional form
move
from
music to
text,
certain
innovative
ideas move
from text to
music.
The
most
important
of those ideas is the coexistent
nature of
sound
and
silence,
of
something
and
nothing:
"I
have
nothing
to
say
and
I
am
saying
it and that is
poetry
as
I
need
it."'3
This
remark,
also
cited
above,
is from the
beginning
of
Cage's
"Lecture
on
Nothing."
Its
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316 TheMusical
uarterly
origin
n
Cage's
aesthetic
s
twofold.
First,
Cage's
attempts
t
art
as
communication
ere,according
o
him,
miserable
ailures.
A
prepared
pianopiece
entitledThePerilous
ight
1943-44)
is a
famous xam-
ple.
Basedon "an Irish
olktale
he
remembered
rom
a volumeof
myths
collected
by
JosephCampbell,"
hePerilous
ight
concerns
"a
perilous
bed
which
restedon a
floor
of
polished
asper.
The music ells
the
story
of the
dangers
f
the
erotic
ife."14
After
a
critic
wrote hat
the last movement ounded ike "a
woodpecker
n
a
church
belfry,"
Cage
responded:
I
had
poured
great
deal of emotion nto the
piece,
and
obviously
wasn't
communicating
his at all.
Or
else,
I
thought,
if I werecommunicating,hen all artistsmustbe speaking different
language,
nd
thus
speaking
nly
for
themselves."15
age
decided,
from hat
point
on,
that
he wouldno
longer
compose
music
until
he
founda
reason
otherthan communicationor
writing
t.
Second,
"havingnothing
o
say"
was
the reason hat allowed
Cage
to continue
composing.
t
was
through
Gita
Sarabhai,
n Indian
musicianwho was
studying
Westernmusicwith
Cage,
that he
learned
"the
traditional
eason
or
making
a
piece
of
music n
India: to
quiet
the mindthusmakingt susceptibleo divineinfluences.' According
to
Cage,
this led music
away
rom
self-expression
nd toward
elf-
alteration
hrough
he
influence
f our natural nvironment: We
learned
rom
Oriental
hought
hat those divine
influences
re,
in
fact,
the
environment
n
which we are.
A
soberand
quiet
mind
s one
in
which the
ego
does not obstruct he
fluency
of
the
things
which
come
in
through
ur sensesand
up
through
ur
dreams."16
"Having
othing
to
say"
allows hat environment
he
opportu-
nity
to
speak.
In
Cage's
work,
partially
s
a
resultof
his
studiesof
Eastern
eligion
and
philosophy
eginning
n the
1940s,
t is a
process
of
diminishing
he role of the self
in
the
creativeact. He was
espe-
cially
nfluenced
n
this
regard
y reading
Aldous
Huxley's
nthology
ThePerennial
hilosophy.
7
This
book describes
shared
eligious
mysticism
ound
n
both Eastand West:
ThedivineGround
f all
existence
s
a
spiritual
bsolute,
neffablen
terms f discursive
hought,
ut
(in
certain
ircumstances)
usceptible
of
beingdirectlyxperienced
nd
realized
y
the
human
eing.
This
Absolute
s
the
God-without-form
f Hindu ndChristian
ystical
phraseology.
he lastendof
man,
he ultimateeason
orhuman xist-
ence,
is unitive
knowledge
f
the divineGround-the
knowledge
hat
can
come
only
to those
who
are
prepared
o
"die
to
self" and
so
make
roomas it
were,
for
God.'8
Cage,
more often than
not,
tried
to
emphasize
the removal of
separations
between
West
and East.
Consequently,
it was of
great
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Silencing
heSounded
elf
317
significance
when,
after
earning
he
Indianreason
or
making
music,
LouHarrison
iscovered
while
"reading
n an old
English
ext,
I think
as old as the sixteenthcentury . . he found hisreasongivenfor
writing
a
piece
of
music: to
quiet
the mindthus
making
t
susceptible
to
divine
influences.'
19
This
approach
o
composition
wasno
longer
cultural;
t
was
universal
n the
original
ense of the word.20 ound
n
all
cultures,
uch
quietude
wasa
reaching
ut into the
worldaround
us,
a removal
f the
separation
etween elfandworld-a nondual
view
of
reality.
Thus,
although
Cage's
"Lecture n
Nothing"
s
compositionally
dual,in that formandcontentstill combinerationalandirrational,
the writtencontent
is nondual
n
nature:
"I
have
nothing
to
say
and
I
am
saying
t."
"What ilence
requires
s
that
go
on
talking.
Such
statements
re
obviously
aradoxical
nd
thus
obviously
nfluenced
y
Cage's
tudy
of
Zen. In his
introduction
o
The
Zen
Teaching
f
Huang
Po,
the
translator,
ohn
Blofeld,
writes:
"At
first
ight
Zen worksmust
seem so
paradoxical
s
to
bewilder
he reader.
On
one
page
we are
told that
everything
s
indivisibly
ne
Mind,
on another hat the
moon is
very
much
a moon and a
tree
indubitably
tree."21
And
whilesilenceas a
phenomenon
utside he self had entered nto sev-
eral
of
Cage's
musical
ompositions,
oth
in
the 1930s
and
1940s,
his
"Lecture n
Nothing"
s the
first nstance
n
which
silence
is
produced
through
uch
paradox:
within the self
via what
Cage
considered is
most
important
egacy,
"having
hown he
practicality
f
making
works
of art
nonintentionally.'"22
Nonintentionhad
become,
for
Cage,
a
new,
nondualistic
ealiza-
tion of
what silence
really
was. He usedthe
example
of his
visit
to an
anechoicchamberwhichwassupposedo produce silentenviron-
ment:
"I
enteredone at Harvard
University
everal
years
ago
and
heard wo
sounds,
one
high
and one
low. When
I
describedhem to
the
engineer
n
charge,
he informed
me that the
high
one was
my
nervous
ystem
n
operation,
he low one
my
blood
n
circulation.
Until
I die
there
will be
sounds.
And
they
will continue
ollowing
my
death. One need not fear
about
he future
of music."23
His visit
had
proved
o him
that,
in
the dualistic enseof
soundversus
ilence,
there"wasno silence."Therewere
only
intended
and
unintended
sounds.
Cage's
firstrecorded nstance of
unintended sound was
textual:
"I
have
nothing
to
say
and am
saying
it."
Having
nothing
to
say
and
saying
it
goes
an
importantstep
further
than
just having
nothing
to
say.
It
implies
what
Cage
makes
specific
in
his
"Lectureon Some-
thing"
(1950):
"This is a talk about
something
and
naturally
also a
talk about
nothing.
About how
something
and
nothing
are not
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318 TheMusical
uarterly
opposed
o
each
otherbut
need each otherto
keep
on
going."24
And
whileformallyCagedoes not makenonintentional extsuntillong
after
havingaccomplished
his
in
musical
ompositions,
e does man-
age
to addresshe ideaof
nonintentional ontent
in
a text
beforehe
is
able to do so
in
music.
It is
through
hance
operations
hat
Cagebeginsmaking
unin-
tentional
music.For
Cage,
it was an
extremely
northodox
way
of
Zen
practice:
[R]ather
han
aking
he
path
hat s
prescribed
n
the formal
ractice
of
ZenBuddhism
tself,
namely, itting ross-legged
nd
breathing
nd
such
hings,
decidedhat
my
proper iscipline
as he one
to
which
was
already
ommitted,
amely,
he
making
f music.And
that
I
would o
it with
a means hatwasas strict s
sitting ross-legged,
namely,
he use
of
chance
perations,
nd he
shifting
f
my
responsi-
bility
rom
he
making
f choices
o that
of
asking
uestions.25
While those conversant
with Zen
might
not view
Cage'spractice
as
Buddhism,t didserveasa veryeffectivemethodof composing.
Beginning
round
1950,
Cage
usedthe
I
Ching
Book
of Changes)
as
a
source
of
response
o
his
compositional
uestions.26
n
his fore-
word
o the Richard
Wilhelm
ranslation,
C. G.
Jung
writes:
The
axioms f
causality
re
being
hakeno their oundations:
e
know
now
hat
what
we term
naturalawsare
merely
tatisticalruths nd
thusmust
necessarily
llow or
exceptions.
We havenot
sufficiently
taken ntoaccount
s
yet
thatwe need he
laboratory
ith ts incisive
restrictionsnordero demonstratehe invariablealidityf natural
law.If we leave
hings
o
nature,
we see a
very
different
icture:
very
process
s
partially
r
totally
nterfered
ith
by
chance,
o
much
o
that
under
aturalircumstances
course f events
bsolutelyonforming
o
specific
aws
s almost
n
exception.
heChinese
mind,
as I see
it at
work
n the
I
Ching,
eems
o
be
exclusively
reoccupied
ith
he
chance
spect
f
things.27
And while
Jung
usedthe
I
Ching
s a meansof
discovering
he
uncon-
sciousmindwithin,
Cage
sawit as a wayof
getting
outside he mind
altogether,
way
of
allowing
nature,
he
environment,
r
whatZen
would
call
Mindwith
a
capital
M,
to
respond
o
his
compositional
questions.
As
Cage
frequently
mentioned,
the idea of a
"silent
piece"
was
conceived
earlier
than
1952,
when
4'33"
received its
premiere.
It
was
first
publicly
mentioned
in
an address
entitled
"A
Composer's
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he
Sounded
elf
319
Confessions,"
iven
on 28
February
948
before
he National
Inter-
Collegiate
ArtsConference t Vassar
College:
I
have,
or
nstance,
everal ew
desires
two
may
eem
absurd
ut
I
am
serious
bout
hem): irst,
o
compose
piece
of
uninterrupted
ilence
and ell
t
to
the
Muzak o. It willbe 3 or 31
minutes
ong;
hese
being
he
standard
engths
f
"canned"
usic nd ts
title
will
be Silent
Prayer.
t will
open
witha
single
dea
which will
attempt
o make s
seductive
s
the colorand
hape
nd
ragrance
f a flower.
he
ending
will
approachmperceptibility.28
This
"single
dea"becamea
process
f
making
music
hat
Cage
learned romAnanda
Coomeraswamy:
I
have for
manyyears
accepted,
and
I
still
do,
the
doctrine
about
Art,
occidentaland orien-
tal,
set
forth
by
Ananda
K.
Coomeraswamy
n
his
book The
Transfor-
nmation
f
Nature
n
Art,
that the functionof
art
is
to
imitateNature
n
her manner f
operation.""29
age
usedthe
I
Ching
s a
way
of
"imi-
tating
nature
n
her manner f
operation,"
nd
by
constructing
is
4'33"
through
hance
operations,
e
did indeed
inda
method
of
making
a
processparallel
o the seductivenessf "thecolor
and
shape
and
fragrance
f a flower." t
was
Cage's
use
of chance
operations
hat
made
possible
a
formal
design
o
place
the silence in.
And when
one
listens o the
silenceof
4'33",
one
hearsnature.
However,
ollowing
nature
n
her
manner f
operation
roved
o
be
problematic
or
Cage.
He
realized hat even
though
4'33"
was
made
solely
of
nonintended
ounds,
he
was still
providing
he frame.
Even
if,
as
in
the case of
4'33",
the
length
of that
framewas
chosen
nonintentionallyhrough hanceoperations,Cagewas stillmakinga
fixed
object.
This
eventually
an
counter o
Cage's
notion that
things
"become"
n
processes
ather
han as
fixed
objects:
"You
ay:
he
real,
the
worldas it is. But
it is
not,
it
becomes t
moves,
it
changes
t
doesn'twait for us to
change.
. .
It
is
more
mobile han
you
can
imagine.
You
are
getting
closer o this
reality
when
you
say
as
it
'pre-
sents
itself';
that
means hat it is
not
there,
existing
as
an
object.
The
world, he real is not an object.It is a process."30
4'33"
also
insufficiently
ddresses
age's
professed
ondualism,
where
"something
and
nothing"
are
unopposed.
4'33"
allows
the unin-
tentional into music.
The
performer imply
sits
and listens
as the
audience listens. As
such,
this
piece
exemplifies
a movement
toward
the silence of
"nothing"
and the
acceptance
of
nonintentional
sounds.
But what
about intentional sounds?
Are these
accepted?
At
what
point
in
4'33"
does
Cage
allow the
performer,
or the
composer,
for
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320 TheMusical
uarterly
that
matter,
to
produce
the
"something"
of intentional sounds?How
can somethingand nothing be unopposedif only "nothing" s
allowed?
These
are,
of
course,
rhetorical
questions,
and as
such their
answers
are
obvious.
Something
and
nothing
can
be
only
unopposed
if
both
intention and
nonintention
equally
coexist.
This sent
Cage
in
the direction of
indeterminacy,
and
in
1958
he
began
his famous series
of
Variations:
The
firstone was nvolved
with the
parameters
f
sound,
he
transpar-
encies
overlaid,
and each
performer
aking
measurementshat would
locatesoundsn space.Then, while I was at WesleyanUniversity,n
this first
piece
I had had
five lines
on
a
single
transparent
heet,
though
I
had had no
intentionof
putting
hem the
way
I
did,
I
just
drew hem
quickly.
At
Wesleyan
while
talking
o some
students
t
suddenly
occurred
o
me that therewouldbe
much
more reedom
f I
put
only
a
single
ine or
a
single
notationon
a
single
sheet. So
I
did that with
Variations
I
but it still
involvedmeasurement.31
Next
followed
a
piece
without measurement
entitled
Variations
II,
written in the short
period
of two months, fromDecember 1962 to
January
1963. Richard Kostelanetz
mplies
that
Variations
II
solves
some
inherent
problems
with the
published
version of
4'33",
one of
which,
of
course,
is the measurement
of time:
Since
Cage
invariably
akes
he intellectual
eaps
his
radical deas
imply,
he
subsequently
oncluded hat not
only
were
any
and
all sounds
"music,"
ut the
time-space
rameof
4'33"
was
needlessly rbitrary,
or
unintentional
music
s indeed
with us-available to
the ear that wishes
to
perceive
t--in
all
spaces
andat all times.
(Variations
II
[1964],
he
once
told
me over
dinner,
s so
open,
"Wecould
be
performing
t
right
now,
if
we
decided o
do
so"
.
.
.).32
The
published
score
includes a title
page
with
the
statement,
"Variations
II
for
one or
any
number
of
people performing
any
actions."
There are no
prescribed
genres,
either
in music
or
any
other
medium,
except
for
the fact
that it
is to
be
"performed."
The
actions
themselvesare also undeterminedexcept for the possibilitythat there
will be actions.
The instruction
page
then reads:
Two
transparent
heets of
plastic,
one
having
forty-two
undifferentiated
circles,
the other blank.
Cut the sheet
having
circles
in such
a
way
that
there are
forty-two
sheets,
each
having
a
complete
circle.
Let these fall
on
a
sheet of
paper
8
x
11. If a circle does not
overlap
at least one
other
circle,
remove it. Remove also
any
smaller
groups
of
circles that
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he
Sounded
elf
321
are
eparated
rom he
largest
roup,
o thata
single
maze f circles
remains,o one ofthem solatedrom tleastoneother.Place he
blank
ransparent
heetover
his
complex.
Starting
ith
any
circle,
observe
he numberf circleswhich
overlap
it. Make
n action r actions
aving
he
corresponding
umberf
interpenetrating
ariables
1
+
n).
This
done,
moveon to
any
one of
the
overlapping
ircles
gain bserving
he numberf
interpenetrations,
performing
suitable ction r
actions,
nd o on.
Someorall of one'sobligation aybeperformedhroughmbient
circumstances
environmental
hanges) y
simply
oticing
r
responding
o
them.
Though
no meansare
given
for
the measurementf time
or
space
(beginning,
nding,
r
questions
f
continuity)
r the
specificnterpen-
etration f
circles,
uch
measurement
nd
determinationeans renot
necessarily
xcluded
rom he
"interpenetrating
ariables."
Some actorshough otallofa given nterpenetrationrsuccessionf
several
may
be
planned
n
advance. ut eave
oom or he useof
unforeseenventualities.
Any
other
activitiesare
going
on at the
same ime.33
The
following
brief
analysis
Will how
that
in
this
piece
Cage
pro-
duceda
truly
nondual
composition
hat allowsboth
something
nd
nothing
to
equally
oexist.
Cage'suse of transparenciess one of the bestmethodshe ever
devised o
insure
an indeterminate
omposition.
The
usual
score,
even
one
where
chance
procedures
etermine
t,
is
fixed. Once
printed,
he
notation
by
nature
s
unchanged.
This
produces
n
object,
and
Cage
fully
realized hat.
Even in
his Music
or
Piano
eries or
example,
where he
notationsare
merely
his
observations f
imperfections
n
the
score
paper,
or
in
the
elaborately
onstructederiesof
chance
operations
sedto makeWilliams
Mix,
"[A]II
he
cutting,
all
the
splic-
ing
of the WilliamsMix is
carefully
ontrolled
by
chance
operations.
This
was characteristic
f
an old
period,
before
ndeterminacy
n
per-
formance,
you
see;
for all
I
was
doing
then
by
chance
operations
was
renouncing my
intention.
Although my
choices
were controlled
by
chance
operations,
I
was still
making
an
object."34
Through
transparencies,
however,
the score need not be
initially
fixed. For
example,
in Variations III one
drops
circles
on a
page,
which
results
in
a collection of
interpenetrating
circles.
However,
there are
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322 TheMusical
uarterly
multiple possibilities
regarding
how
many
circles
remain,
if
they
inter-
sect, and how many must be removedif they do not. The composer
certainly
does not
determine
that;
nor does the
performer.
Even
though
the
score is
eventually
fixed,
it can be fixed
differently
or
each
performance.
Furthermore,
f
there
is more
than
one
performer,
there can also
be more than one determined
score.
While
fixity
still
exists
in
Cage's
transparency
cores,
the variables
are
so
multiple
(hence
the title
"variations")
t would
be next to
impossible
to
determine
what
exactly
will be
fixed and
what
will remain
open.
If
the
score itself seems
variablydetermined,
the
performer's
interaction
with the score
is
even more
variable.
By
looking
at one
circle,
one
simply
observes
how
many interpenetrations
here are
between
it and
any
other
connecting
circle and then
performs
an
action
for
each observed
interpenetration.
Such actions
can be either
planned
or
unplanned,
although Cage
does insist
that
room
be left to
do
both. Observation
of
"ambient
circumstances"
an
either
produce
an action
or can
actually
be the action.
Because there is
no indicated
time
measurement
and because
"other activities
are
going
on at
the
same time," a performanceof VariationsII, once begun, need never
end.
One
could follow the
score
for
a
time,
enter into the
experience
of
an ambient
circumstance,
and continue
reacting
to those
circum-
stances
indefinitely.
Or
as
Cage
noted:
Just
as
I
came
to
see that
therewasno such
thing
as
silence,
and so
wrote
he silent
piece,
I wasnow
coming
o
the realization
hat
there
was
no such
thing
as
nonactivity.
n otherwords
he
sand
n
which the
stones
n
a
Japanesearden
ie
is
also
something
..
And so I made
Variations
II
which
eaves
no
space
betweenone
thing
and
the next
and
posits
hat
we
are
constantly
ctive,
that
these actions
can be of
any
kind
and all
I
ask
the
performer
o
do
is to be
aware s
much
as
he
can
of
how
many
actions
he is
performing.
ask
him,
in
other
words,
to count.
That's
all
I
ask
him
to do.
I
askhim
even
to
count
passive
actions,
such
as
noticing
hat
there
s a
noise
in
the
environment.We
move
through
ur
activity
without
any
space
betweenone
action
and
the
next,
and
with
many
overlapping
ctions.
The
thing
I
don't
ike
about
Variations
II
is
that
it
requires
ounting
and I'mnow
trying
o
get
rid
of
that.
But
I
thought
hat
performance
as
simply
getting
up
and
then
doing
t.35
On
the other
hand,
one need
not count
past
an
environmental
experience,
if
one
chooses
to remain
in
it.
And
Cage
himself under-
stood
the
difficulties:
"But
what,
how and
why
are we
counting?
Since
there
are
no
gaps
between
one action and
another
(and
many
of them
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heSounded
elf
323
overlap)
do
we knowwhen
something
s finishedand the next
begins?
The situation s irrational."36t is, in fact, the opennessof Variations
III,
whererationaland irrational
oexist
without
reconciliation,
hat
allows he
performer
o enter
into or
go
out of
the
piece
at
will,
while
paradoxically
taying
within its
notated
structure.Thus
intention
and
nonintention
qually
oexist,
while,
due to
the several
ayers
of
expe-
riences
going
on at the same
time,
a
multiplicity
f intentions ollec-
tively
produce
n
unintentional
nd indeterminate
iece.
In
Variations
III
something
nd
nothing
really
do
need
each
other;
hey
coexist
n a
fabricof artandlifecompletelynterwoven ne with another.Cage
once
spoke
of a
conversationwith
the visual
artist
Willem
de
Koon-
ing:
"I
waswith
de
Kooning
once in a
restaurant
nd
he
said,
'if
I
put
a framearound hese
bread
rumbs,
hat isn'tart.'
And what
I'm
say-
ing
is
that it
is.
He
was
saying
t wasn'tbecausehe
connectsart with
his
activity-he
connectswith himself
as
an
artist
whereas
would
want art to
slip
out of
us
into the world
n
which we
live."37
n
4'33"
Cage
placed
a framearound he
"bread
rumbs,"
hus
beginning
he
process
f
dismantling
ualistic
eparations
uch as
the one
mentioned
betweenart and life. In Variations
II,
nondual
xperience
s
complete:
the
final
mpediment,
he
frame,
s
removed.
If,
as has been
suggested
ere,
the
lectures n
both
"nothing"
and
"something"
nform he
musical
directions
Cage pursues
n
4'33"
and
Variations
II,
it
is
equally
ruethat those two
compositions oint
toward
Cage's
uture
developments
n
literature.The
gestation
period
was
long.
Richard
Kostelanetz rote
n
1968:
"What
s
conspicuously
lacking
n A
Year
rom
Monday
Cage's
econd
book]
s an
analogous
path-breakingesturehatcouldcommand s muchsuggestivenflu-
ence for literature s
his
earlier
musical'
demonstrations.'"38
his,
in
and
of
itself,
need not
matter.
Many
composers
ave also been
writ-
ers,
and there
is
usually
no
consequent
laim
asserted hat
somehow
the
writing
must
be
up
to the same evel as
the music.
Frequently-
and this
is
as trueof
Cage
as
of
many
others--the
writings
re an
explanation
f what
is
happening
n
the
music.
Thus
it
is
not a
com-
mon
expectation
hat
a
composer's ritings
must
somehow
qualify
as
literature.
However,
Cage
implies
rom
he
very
first
hat,
in
somecases
at
least,
his
writings o beyond
musical
xplanation.
As
Cage
wrote
n
his
introduction to
Silence,
"When M. C.
Richardsasked me
why
I
didn't
one
day give
a
conventional informative
ecture,
adding
that
that would
be
the
most
shocking thing
I
could
do,
I
said,
'I
don't
give
these lecturesto
surprisepeople,
but out of a
need for
poetry.'
"
He
went on
to
write: "As
I
see
it,
poetry
is
not
prose
simply
because
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324
TheMusical
Quarterly
poetry
s
in
one
way
or
another ormalized.t
is
not
poetry
by
reason
of its contentorambiguityutbyreasonof its allowingmusical le-
ments
(time,
sound)
o be
introduced
nto the
world
of
words.""39t
is
in
this
context, then,
that one
might
expect
a
literary
ritic
(which
s
the
hat Kostelanetz
most
frequently
wears)
amiliar
with
Cage's
musi-
cal inventions o
expressdisappointment
n
the less
revolutionary
nature
of
Cage's
exts.
Cage's
extualwork
n the
1960shad moreto do with his
devel-
oping
sensibilities s a
poet
than
it
did with
trying
o
equal
his
achievements
n
music.On the other
hand,
two textual nventions
are
worthy
of
note:
his
mesostics nd
his
diaries,
only
one
of
which
(the
diaries)
oncerns
his
analysis.40
The
diary
orm
was
used
by
Cage
for
many
years,beginning
n
1965 and
ending
with
his
eighth
diary
n
1982.
His
Diary:
Audience
1966,
while not a
part
of this
series,
s shortand
uses
the
same
ormal
structure s his otherdiaries. also received
permission
rom
Cage
to
use
photocopies
f
pages
rom he
stenographic otepadCage
used
to
compose
his
piece.
These wereobtained rom he
John
Cage
Literary
Archive,WesleyanUniversityLibrary,ndserveas the rawmaterial
for
this
analysis.
While
Cage
did
not leave detailed nformation bout
how
those materials
were
used,
he did leave
a
trail,
in
various
ources,
through
which
I
will
try
to reconstruct
he
compositional rocess.
The first
place
to check for
clues is the introductiono the
text,
where
Cage frequently
rovided
nformation bouthow
his
pieces
werewritten:
This extwaswritten n thehighwayshiledrivingrom n audience
in
Rochester,
ew
York,
o one
in
Philadelphia.
ollowing
he
writing
plan
hadused or
Diary:
mma
ake,
formulated
n
my
mind
while
driving
statement
aving given
numberf words.
When
t
had
jelled
and
I
could
epeat
t,
I
drew
p
somewhere
long
he
road,
wrote
it
down,
and hen
drove n.
When
arrived
n
Philadelphia,
he text
was
finished.41
The full
title of the source
Cage
mentions
s
Diary:
Emma
Lake
MusicWorkshop965.This introductioneads:
Just
before
etting
out for Saskatchewan
o conduct
a music
workshop
at EmmaLake
n
July
1965,
I
received
a
request
rom he editorof
Canadian
rt for
an article
having
ifteen
hundredwords.Since
I was
busy
with a number f
projects,
was
on the
point
of
replying
hat
I
had
no
time,
whenI noticed hat
I would
be
at
the
workshop
or
fif-
teen
days
and
that
if
I wroteone
hundred
words
a
day
it wouldn't e
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Silencing
he
Sounded
elf
325
too
much orme
and he
magazine
ould
et
what t wanted.nstead
of differenttype faces, I usedparenthesesand italics to distinguishone
statement
from another.
I set the text
in
a
single
block like
a
paragraph
of
prose.
Otherwise
used
he
mosaic-discipline
f
writing
escribedn
the note
preceding
iary:
How o
Improve
tc.
1965.42
The
above-mentioned
iary
ntroduction
eads:"It is a mosaicof
ideas,
statements,
wordsand
stories.
It is also a
diary.
Foreach
day,
I
determined
y
chance
operations
ow
many
parts
of
the mosaicI
wouldwrite
and how
many
words
herewouldbe
in
each.
The num-
berof wordsperdaywas to equal,or, by the last statementwritten, o
exceedone
hundredwords."43
With the information
rovided
y
these
introductions,
nalysis
can
begin.
The first
page
of
Cage's
notebook
Figure
)
includes he
working
itle "On Audience" nd showsa seriesof numbers
o
the
left
of
the
roman
numerals
-VI.
These romannumerals
orrespond
o
the
six
large
ectionsof
the text. As
will
be
seen,
everything
ut the
six is
explainable
ccording
o the
proceduresreviously
escribed.
How-
ever,one thingthat characterizesll of Cage'swork s thatevery
compositional
ecisionhad a reasonbehind
t,
even
if
the decision
was not to decide.
Why
six?
Two
clues
offer
a
plausible
nswer.
First,
Cage
claims
o have
followed
he same
procedure
n
writing
"Audi-
ence"
that
he
used
for EmmaLake.
That
diary
had
fifteen
parts,
one
for each
day
of the
workshop.
econd,
in
Cage's
ntroductiono
"Audience" e
writes
hat
it
was
composed
while
driving
rom
Roch-
ester
to
Philadelphia.
And
(not
coincidentally,
believe)
in
1965 the
approximate
riving
ime fromRochester
o
Philadelphia
as six
hours.44
Thus,
the
large
tructure
may
have been conceived
by
writing
a hundredwords
per
hour
The first
page
also has thirteen
Ching
derived
hexagrams,
with
some
(but
not
all)
of the
corresponding
umberswritten
out below.
Cage
described ow
he usedthe I
Ching
n
"To Describe he
Process
of
Composition
Used
in
Music
of
Changes
nd
Imaginary
andscape
No.
4":
What bringsabout this unpredictability s the use of the method estab-
lished
n
the
I
Ching
Book
f
Changes)
or he
obtaining
f
oracles,
that
of
tossing
hreecoins
six times. Three
coins tossed
once
yields
our
lines: three
heads,
broken
with
a
circle;
two
tails and a
head,
straight;
two heads
and
a
tail, broken;
three
tails,
straight
with a circle.
Three
coins tossed thrice
yields eight
trigrams
written
from the base
up):
chien,
three
straight;
chen,
straight,
broken,
broken; kan, broken,
straight,
broken;
ken, broken, broken,
straight;
kun,
three
broken; sun,
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8/11/2019 Cage and the Intentionality of Nonintention - Shultis
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326 TheMusical
Quarterly
V3V
'S~i~
\/
\(
~y
2.3
_..
(.
-_
,T"h
v
..
v
-
to
;L
"
y6
m
92-
^
n
(I
f,
@,@....
o?.
k~?s
(;
.t.,"
. L
L C
;j,,
rs
..,==.
""?
Figure .
broken,
traight, traight;
i,
straight,
broken,
traight;
ui,
straight,
straight,
broken.Threecoins
tossed
ix times
yield sixty-four
exagrams
(two
trigrams,
he
second
written
above
he
first)
read
n
reference
o
a
chart
of
the
numbers to
64
in
a
traditional
rrangementavingeight
divisions
horizontally
orresponding
o the
eight
lower
rigrams
nd
-
8/11/2019 Cage and the Intentionality of Nonintention - Shultis
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8/11/2019 Cage and the Intentionality of Nonintention - Shultis
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328 TheMusical
Quarterly
,odiY3r
AUDIENCE966
I.
Are we an audience for
computer
art? The answer's not
No;
it's
Yes.
What
we
need
is
a
computer
that isn't
labor-saving
but,
which
increases
the
work
for us to
do,
that
puns
(this is McLuhan's idea) as
well
as
Joyce
revealing
bridges
(this
is Brown's
idea)
where we
thought
there weren't
any,
turns
us
(my
idea)
not "on" but into
artists.
Orthodox
seating
arrangement
in
synagogues.
Indians
have known
it
for
agess
life's
a
dance,
a
play,
illusion.
Lila,
Maya.
Twentieth-century
art's
opened
our
eyes.
Now
music's
opened our ears. Theatre? Just notice what's around. (If what you want
in India
is
an
audience,
Gita Sarabhai
told
me,
all
you
nee
,
is
one or
two
people.)
II.
He
saids
Listening
to
your
music I find
it
prorokes
me.
What
should
I
do
to
enjoy
it?
Answer:
There're
many ways
to
help
you.
I'd
give
you
a
lift,
for
instance,
if
you
were
going
in
my
direction,
but
the last
thing
I'd
do would
be
to
tell
you
how to use
your
own
aesthetic
faculties.
(You
see?
We're
unemployed.
If not
yet,
"soon
again
'twill
be." We
have
nothing
to
do.
So
what shall we
do? Sit
in
an audience?
Write criticism?
Be
creative?)
We used
to
have
the artist
up
on
a
pedestal.
Now
he's
no more
extraordinary
than
we
are.
III.
Notice audiences at
high
altitudes
and
audiences
in northern
countries
tend to
be
attentive
during
performances
while
audiences at
sea-level
or
in
warm
countries voice their
feelings
whenever
they
have
them.
Are
we,
so to
speak,
going
south in
the
way
we
experience
art? Audience
participation?
(Having
nothing
to
do,
we
do
it
nonetheless;
our
biggest
problem
is
finding scraps
of
time
in
which
to
get
it
done.
Discovery.
Awareness.)
"Leave
the
beaten
traik. You'll
see
something
never
seen
before."
After the first performance of my piece for
twelve
radios,t
Virgil
Thomson
said,
"You
can't
do that
sort
of
thing
and
expect people
to
pay
for
it."
Separation.
IV.
When
our time
was
&iven to
physical labor,
we
needed
a
stiff
upper
lip
and
backbone. Now that we're
changing
our
minds,
intent
on
things
invisible,
inaudible,
we have
other
spineless
virtues:
flexibility, fluency.
Dreams,
daily
events,
everything
gets
to and
through
us.
(Art,
if
you
want
a
definition
of
it,
is
criminal
action.
It
conforms to
no
rules.
Not
even
its
own.
Anyont
who
experiences
a
work
of art is as
guilty
as
the artist. It
is
not
a
question
of
sharing
the
guilt.
Each
one
of us
gets
all
of
it.) They
asked
me
about theatres
in
New
York.
I said
we
could
use
them.
They
should
be
small
for
the
audiences,
the
performing
areas
large
and
spacious,
equipped
for
television
broadcast
for those
who
prefer
staying
atrtom?.
TLzr
-hol._d-be-af.cfe
in
Figure
2.
-
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Silencing
he
Sounded
elf
329
number f words
equired.
Afterhe had worked hem into a formhe
couldremember, e pulledover and wrotethemdown.Accordingo
his written
ntroduction,
he text was finished
by
the time he
arrived
in
Philadelphia.
his
story
seemed o remarkable
hat DavidRevill
actually
omments
pecifically
bout t
in
his
biography
f
Cage:
"With
characteristic
elf-discipline,
e
ascertained t the start
of each
leg
of
the
journey
how
many
wordswere
needed
or the
next
state-
ment
of the
text,
formulated
t
and revised
t in
his head as
he
drove,
pulled
over and wrote t
down,
checked he
length
of the
next state-
mentand droveon. Bythe time he reachedPhiladelphia,he piece
was
finished."49
his
may
seem somewhat
edundant,
ince when
one
looks
up
the author's eferencet
is,
in
fact,
the text
itselfas
pub-
lished
n A Year
rom
Monday.
However,
when
one
compares
he
stenographic
otebook o
both
Cage's
ntroduction nd
Revill'sbio-
graphical
laboration f
it,
certain
hings
do not
add
up.
If
Cage
were
writingaccording
o the number f words
equired
n
each
statement,
one wouldassume hat the first ext in the
notebook
would
correspond
to the first
I
Ching-derived
exagram
umber
ixty-three.
nstead
we
find thatthe firstwritten ext in the notebook s
fifty-one.
There
s,
in
fact,
no
correlation
etween he
orderof
hexagrams
rawnon the
first
notebook
page
and
the
orderof texts
found
n
the
notebook.50
It
is
unlikely
hat
Cage
really
inished he
Diaryby
the
time he
reached
Philadelphia
nd even
less
likely
that
he wrote t
in
the
way
Revill describes.The
following
s a more
ikely
scenario.
Cage
formu-
latedcertain
tatements,
ome
of
which were
directly
elated
o the
topic
of the
conferencewhere he
speech
was to
be
delivered
"The
ChangingAudience or the ChangingArts").Whenlookingat the
initialnumbers
most of them are
large-51,
50,
43,
33, 46,
and so
on-and at
the
very
end
there are
fournumbers
left--24,
17,
10,
and
5
(see
Figure
).
And
Cage
does
indeeddo these
last four
n
order
from
arge
o
small
(see
n.
50).
Thus,
Cage
probably egan
hinking
of
things
eitherthat he
wanted o
say
or
that
independently
ame into
his
head,
paying
attention
o whether
hese statements
were
ong
or
short
approximatelyccording
o the
I
Ching
numbers
e,
in
all
likelihood,generated rior
o the
trip.
How do we know
that
they
were
approximations
nd
that
Cage
did not have an
exact number
f words
n
his
mind?
First,
here
is
a
disparity
between
generated
numbersand written
texts.
The
only
other
possibility
is
that
Cage
worked out of
another
notebook first
and
then rewrote
everything
into the
notebook found in
his
archive. This
is
extremely
doubtful.
Anyone
who visits either
of
Cage's
archives is
immediately
mpressedby
the fact that he
appears
o
have
saved
-
8/11/2019 Cage and the Intentionality of Nonintention - Shultis
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330
The
Musical
Quarterly
cl
,
Niv.
"1
I
I
ifI
p,?lne
~W
Figure
.
-
8/11/2019 Cage and the Intentionality of Nonintention - Shultis
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Silencing
heSounded
elf
331
everything,
nd saved
t in
an
orderly
ashion.
This is
particularly
rue
with the materialsound n the literary rchiveat Wesleyan,mostof
which were
eventually
published.
n
all
probability,
his
notebook
s
what
Cage
usedto
initially
write
down
these texts.
Lookingagain
at
Figure
1,
one notices as further onfirmationhat the numbersisted
to the left of the romannumerals re circled.
I
would
suggest
hat
these
were
circledas
Cage completed
hat
particular
ext.
If
accepted,
this
reasoning
lso
helps explain
both the fournumbers
24,
17, 10,
and
5)
on
the last
four
pages
of the
notebook
and
the fact that nei-
ther
10
nor
5 is
circled: ince
these were
probably
he
last-completed
texts,
circling
was therefore
nnecessary.
Second,
the notebooks how
that
Cage verycarefully
ditedeach
of the
statements
ntil
they
did
match
exactly.
And
although
t is
questionable
hether
or not
Cage
couldboth writeand
edit each
of
these texts while at
the
same
time
driving
o
Philadelphia,
uch
issues,
unlikethe
previous peculations,
o not
directly
affect his
analysis.
What
matters
s
the
editing
tself.
Figure
showswhat
readsas num-
ber
sixty-one
but
is
actually
ixty-three
nd
is
thus
the
very
first
tate-
mentin the publishedext. Forcomparisonandforreasons f
legibility)
t
is
reproduced
elow
(parentheses
orrespond
o
text
Cage
crossed
ut):
(Stet)
61
(Could
we
do it witha
computer?
(Not
art,
but)
I
don'tmeanmake
computer
rt
Are we an
audience
or
computer
rt?
butCan(cd.)5'we sit in an audience
computer
rt
and
enjoy
(it)
once it
(was)/is
made?)
not
(Don't
think) (T)the
answer's
o;
it's
(inevitably)
es.
What)W(w)e
need
(is)
a
computer
hat
isn't abor
aving
utwhich
increaseshe work
orus
to do, that(asMcLuhanays)
this
s
McLuhan'sdea
(can)
puns
as well
as
Joyce
(this is)
this is
Brown'sdea
revealing ridges
wherewe
thought
there weren't
(none).
any,
turns
us
my
ideanot "on"but
into
artists.
-
8/11/2019 Cage and the Intentionality of Nonintention - Shultis
22/40
?of
.
.
,A.
4, 4
IA1L
.
. . .
-Il
Figure
.
-
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Silencing
heSounded
elf
333
Compare
his to the
published
ext:
I.
Are
we an audience
or
computer
rt?The
answer'sot
No;
it'sYes.
Whatwe need s a
computer
hat sn't
abor-saving
utwhich
increaseshe work orus to
do,
that
puns
this
s
McLuhan's
dea)
as
well
as
Joyce evealingridges
this
s
Brown's
dea)
where
we
thought
hereweren't
ny,
urns s
(my
dea)
not "on" ut
nto
artists.52
The differences
remarkable,
nd the finalresult
even
if
the
original
somehow eemsmorepoetic)doescloselyresembleCage'sviewof
poetry
as "formalized"
rose.53
This
leads
o the
following
question:
Did
Cage
edit the text
simply
o meet
the
prescribedixty-three
words,
or did he
also
edit for
reasons f
personal
aste
By
comparing
script
and
differingways
of
crossing
ut
wordswe can
reproduce
hat
Cage originally
wrote:
Could
we do
it witha
computer?
I
don't
mean
make
omputer
rt
butcd. wesit in an audience
and
enjoy
t once t wasmade?
Don't hink he answer's
o;
it's
nevitably
es.Whatwe
need
s
a
computer
hat
isn't
abor
aving
ut
which
increases
he
work or
us
to
do,
thatas McLuhan
ays
can
puns
as
well
as
Joyce
revealingridges
herewe
thought
thereweren't one.
This
excerpt,
as
is,
totals
seventy-two
words.
f
one
looksat
the
top
of
the
page (Figure
)
one
can
distinguish
wo
crossed-out
umbersol-
lowed
by
"-1."
These
numbers
re first
9,
then
4.
The
text
repro-
ducedabove
minusnine words
wouldhave
equaled
he
requiredixty-
three.
Consequently,Cage
needed
o remove
nine words. t
wouldbe
verydifficulto determine he order n whichCagemadethese
changes,
o
instead
we will
follow
them as
they
occur
n
the text.
Cage
crosses ut all
of "Couldwe do it with
a
computer?
don't
mean
make
computer
art but
cd.
we sit iri
an audience
and
enjoy
it
once
it
was made?"
and
changes
it
to "Are we an audience
for
computer
art?"
The
original
has
twenty-seven
words while
the
change
has
seven,
leaving
a
difference of
twenty
words.This is not
exactly
a
time-saving
method
of
removing
nine
words. It means
that
Cage
would
have
had
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334
The
Musical
Quarterly
to
come
up
with eleven
more
words f
he
accepted
he
change,
which
seemsunlikely.
What if
Cage
instead
beganby
crossing
ut
unnecessary
ordsas
follows,withoutan alteration f the text: "inevitably," what,"
"is,"
"asMcLuhan
ays,"
"can,"
"none."This
showsa
remarkable
imilarity
to
the
crossed-out umbers.
Removing"inevitably,"
what,"
"is,"
"can,"
and "none" eaves
our;
removing
"as
McLuhan
ays"
eaves
one.
And,
although
am
by
no
meansa
handwriting
xpert,
t
also
appears
o be consistentwith
Cage's
various
noticeable
tyles
of cross-
ingout words. fsuch werethe case,bycrossing ut "Don't hink"
and
adding
"not" o make"Theanswer's ot
No;
it's
Yes,"
Cage
wouldhave madea statementwith
sixty-three
words:
Couldwe do it witha
computer?
I
don't
meanmake
omputer
rt
butcd.
we
sit
in
an audience
and
enjoy
t once t was
made?
Theanswer'sot
No;
it'sYes.
We need a computerhat isn't
labor
aving
utwhich ncreases
the work orus to
do,
that
puns
aswell
as
Joyce
evealingridges
wherewe
thought
hereweren't.
I
believethe
evidence ndicates hat
Cage
initially
made his text
and
then
changed
t.
It was
purposely
lteredat
great
additional
expense
of
time,
especially
onsidering
he fact that he
reportedly
as
in a hurry.The reasons ouldbe several,but twoareprobable nd
important
o this
analysis.
One,
he
may
have
wished
o alter he
orig-
inal
meaning:
"any,
urns
us
(my
idea)
not 'on' but
into artists"
s
clearly
a text added o
suit the additionof
"this s McLuhan'sdea"
and
"this s Brown'sdea."
Two,
he
may
simply
have
not likedthe
results
f
his initial
editing
and
one
could
say
that
the
final
product
does
read"better."
Looking
t the
manuscript
s a
whole,
one
sees
that
thereare
alterations
madeon
everypage.
The five-word
age
"Orthodox
eating
arrangement"
see
Figure
)
was
originally
Ordinary
0th
Century
human
beings."
n
addition,
here
are two
versions,
of
which
only
one
is
selected,
for both numbers
orty-three
and
forty-six.
The texts
respectively
have to do
with
Cage's
mother
and with television and
were,
in
all
likelihood,
omitted
for the same reason
"Ordinary
0th
century
human
beings"
was
changed:
because
they
are
not
directly
related
to
"audience,"
he
subject
of
the
speech.
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Silencing
heSounded
elf
335
I.
Are we
an
audience
for
c
mputer
art? The
answer's
not
No;
it's
Yes.
What we
need
us
a
computer
that
isn't
labor
saving
but which incre ses
the
work
for
us
to
do,
that
puns
(this
is McLuhan's
idea)
as well as
Joyce
revealing
bridges
(this
is
Brown's
idea)
where
we
thought
there
weren't
any,
turns
us
my
idea)
not "on" but
into
artists,.
-
....1
Indians
have
known
it for
ages:
life's
a
Lance,
a
play,
illusion. Lila.
Maya.
Twentieth
century
art'
opened
our
eyes.
Now
music's
opened our ears.
Theater?
JLst notice what's
around. (If
what
you
want
in
India
is
aniaudience,
Gita
Sarabhai
told
me,
all
you
need
is
one
or
two
people.)
II.
He said:
Listening
to
your
music
I
find
it
provokes
me.
What
should
I
do to
enjoy
it?
Answer:
There're
many ways
to
help
you.
I'd
give you
a
lift,for
instance,if
you
were
going
in
my
direction,
but
the
last
thing
I'd
do
would
be
to
tell
you
how to
use
your
own aesthetic
faculties.
(You see?
We're
unemployed.
If
not
yet,
"soon
again
'twill
be."
We
have
nothing
to do.
So
what
shall
we do? Sit
in an
audience?
Write
criticism?
Be creative?)
We
used
to have
the
artist up on a pedestal. Now he's no more extraordinary
than
we
are.
III. Notice audiences at
high
altitudes
and
audiences in
northern
countries tend
to
be
attentive
Figure
.
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Silencing
heSounded
elf
337
And that'swhat
linksme the most
closely
with
Duchamp
nd Thoreau.
In bothof them,as different s they maybe, youfinda complete
absence
of interest
n
self
expression.
Thoreauwanted
only
one
thing:
to see
and hearthe world
around
him.
When
he
found
himself nter-
ested
in
writing,
he
hoped
to finda
way
of
writing
whichwouldallow
others
not
to see and hear
how he had done
it,
but to see whathe
had
seen
and to hearwhathe
had heard.He was not
the
one
who
chose
his
words.
They
cameto
him
fromwhat there
s to see and hear. You're
going
to tell
me that Thoreau ad a definite
tyle.
He has his
very
own
way
of
writ