Silence: Lectures and Writings [Paperback]

John Cage (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 15, 1966

Silence, John Cage's first book and epic masterpiece, was published in October 1961. In these lectures, scores, and writings, Cage tries, as he says, to find a way of writing that comes from ideas, is not about them, but that produces them. Often these writings include mesostics and essays created by subjecting the work of other writers to chance procedures using the I Ching. Fifty years later comes a beautiful new edition with a foreword by eminent music critic Kyle Gann. A landmark book in American arts and culture, Silence has been translated into more than forty languages and has sold over half a million copies worldwide. Wesleyan University Press is proud to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the book's publication with this special hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"As the unchallenged father figure of American experimental music, Mr. Cage wields an influence that extends far beyond sound alone. . . . Indeed, the entire American avant-garde would be unthinkable without Mr. Cage's music, writings, and genially patriarchical personality."--John Rockwell, The New York Times

"Of all Cage's books, it is perhaps the first, Silence, which has had the broadest impact. Even now, artists of all sorts continue to respond to its Zen principles, its chance procedures, and its revolutionary ideas about sound, silence, form, and time."--Dance Chronicle

"'It's the book I've reread most often in my life,' writes the composer-critic Kyle Gann in his illuminating foreword to the 50th anniversary edition. ... To reread Silence today is to see how complex, playful, but also deeply ironic Cage's seemingly upbeat and casual aesthetic really was." --Marjorie Perloff, Los Angeles Review of Books

From the Publisher

7 x 8 1/4 trim. LC 61-14238 --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: The MIT Press (August 15, 1966)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262530031
• ISBN-13: 978-0262530033
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 6.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,278,762 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

70 of 72 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nothing Has Been The Same, May 19, 2000

By 

George Grella "Urbane citizen" (Brooklyn) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Silence: Lectures and Writings (Paperback)

It's always a strange sensation for me to go into a record store, or even see what's available here, and find so many John Cage recordings in print. As the most essential and avant-garde composer of the century, that's gratifying to me [a composer] but also unnerving that anyone so experimental and uncompromising in the arts would enjoy such popularity.

This book goes a long way towards explaining that. And in many ways, this book stands apart from his music, and can be enjoyed without ever hearing or knowing of Cage's music pieces. Because the music was almost by accident - Schoenberg told Cage that he was an inventor, not a composer, and this book demonstrates that, and goes further to show Cage was a philosopher. Music just happened to be the medium where he best expressed his philosophy, but it could have been painting or film, depending on his path. The book defines a way of living and thinking and seeing, and of course hearing, the world. That's what it's about. And it's beautiful and gentle quality capture the essence of Cage, a true quiet revolutionary. His revolution was profound, and best expressed in his piano piece 4'33", where the pianist does not make a sound at the instrument. The revolution of that event was the most profound and destabilizing in the history of music, and yet it was entirely silent. Such is the power of Cage's ideas that he has no need to really 'lecture' about them, he merely presents them and let's their own strength do the rest.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exceptional book; insights that apply to more than art., July 7, 1999

By 

David Neale-Lorello - See all my reviews

This review is from: Silence: Lectures and Writings (Paperback)

This is the only book of Cage's I have read, but I found it not only cleared up any questions I had about the nature and intention of his work, but also gave me a much greater appreciation of what a true pioneer he was, both as an artist and philosopher. His humor and passion for life and art are in clear evidence throughout the book; each article or lecture reveals a new facet, a new layer of his boundless creativity and powerful stand for all art. Even though parts of the book may get fairly technical, much of what he says about music applies to life in general and to the goal of pursuing both to their fullest. A must-have for any serious musician or lover of art and life.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quintessential Cage, August 16, 2001

By 

David Rodwin (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Silence: Lectures and Writings (Paperback)

I keep reading it year after year and I keep finding sections of it I've never seen before. magic. A the same time, I read the same part overs and over again years later and they just get better.

It's just a remarkable text.

You have to get it.