Silence: Lectures and Writings [Paperback]

John Cage (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 15, 1961

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."

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

"SILENCE starts with the finest dedications of modern times--'To Whom It May Concern'--and past that you embark on one of the most entertaining and rewarding intellectual voyages that contemporary literature affords."--Alfred Frankenstein, San Francisco Chronicle

"One of the most entertaining and rewarding intellectual voyages that contemporary literature affords."--San Francisco Chronicle

From the Publisher

7 x 8 1/4 trim. LC 61-14238

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 276 pages
• Publisher: Wesleyan; 1st edition (June 15, 1961)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0819560286
• ISBN-13: 978-0819560285
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #87,467 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

74 of 76 people found the following review helpful

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

By George Grella VINE™ VOICE

Format: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.

24 of 24 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

Format: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.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Quintessential Cage August 16, 2001

By David Rodwin

Format: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.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars don't buy the Kindle edition March 6, 2012

By J. mcnalley

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

The Kindle edition is just a collection of scanned pages. The text doesn't reflow, and doesn't zoom. It is microscopic on an ordinary Kindle. The book is marked as "optimized for large screens" but it is really just an extremely lazy attempt at an ebook. I expected reflowable text and a few large images of Cage's visual scores. What I got was unusable on my Kindle.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Out of Cage March 2, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

Having red an increasingly litterature of and about John Cage, Silence is the one I return to. It reveals his ways and his means, as by actually composing the lectures and writings the same way he composed his music. Even if the content often serves only to fill the composition, it is funny and it is full of wisdom. And beautiful. Add up the Indeterminacy recording from Smithsonian Folkways, and you have the best of his writings.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars great book: DON'T BUY THE KINDLE VERSION! February 13, 2012

By Eve Beglarian

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is one of my favorite books on music, for sure, but the Kindle edition is making me crazy!!! I read on the iPad and have to magnify each page to get the type readable: each page is an image, so no highlighting, annotating etc. is possible, but there's a GIANT margin around the page, which if it had been utilized, would make a totally readable font-size. CRAZY-MAKING!!! a pdf version would at least be possible to mark up using the various PDF readers out there.

what are publishers thinking?!?! PLEASE put some more effort into creating e-reader versions: or at least warn the buyer ahead of time that most e-reader functionality will be unavailable.

okay, rant over. enjoy the book, it's life-changingly wonderful!!!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Interesting!! February 16, 2007

By T. Bishop

Format:Paperback

This book is a work of art in itself. John Cage takes so many of his theories and applies them to his writing style, formatting, and type style. I suggest knowing a little about him before reading this book as it is a little easy to get lost in translation (figuratively speaking). Overall, it is definitely worth reading, and it is fairly affordable...a good addition to any collection.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-have for anyone interested in musical philosophy February 26, 2011

By Perry Natlynne

Format:Paperback

A great collection of Cage's lectures and writings. Much of it is very abstract, other parts more straightforward and focused on musical form (or lack thereof), much discussion on composition and music of the latter part of the 20th century, how we view music, and the integral role that silence and noises plays in how people perceive music.