{"id":89,"date":"2012-11-20T19:34:55","date_gmt":"2012-11-20T19:34:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.johncage.it\/blog\/?p=89"},"modified":"2013-01-03T12:17:47","modified_gmt":"2013-01-03T12:17:47","slug":"there-went-everybody-by-alvin-curran-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.johncage.it\/blog\/2012\/11\/20\/there-went-everybody-by-alvin-curran-3\/","title":{"rendered":"There Went Everybody, by Alvin Curran"},"content":{"rendered":"

Con molto piacere inauguro il blog di www.johncage.it<\/a> con There Went Everybody<\/em><\/strong>, il pensiero di Alvin Curran<\/a> in omaggio al centenario di John Cage. Ringrazio Alvin per avermi concesso il permesso di condividere le sue righe (cliccate sul titolo qui sotto per leggerle) su questo spazio. Buona lettura (in inglese).<\/p>\n

It is a great pleasure for me to usher in the www.johncage.it<\/a> blog with Alvin Curran<\/a>‘s <\/em>There Went Everybody<\/strong>: his personal reflection for John’s centennial. I want to thank Alvin for sharing his thought and for giving me the chance to publish it here (click on the title below to open it). Enjoy the read!<\/em><\/p>\n

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There Went Everybody: A Centennial Reflection<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Here comes Cage – under his left arm, a paper bag full of recycled chance operations \u2013 in his right hand, a copy of The Book of Bosons \u2013 the new-found perhaps key to matter which the Italian press calls la particella di Dio<\/em> – the god-particle. On his way home he stops off at his favorite natural food store and buys some dried bulgur to make a refreshing supper of tabouleh. It\u2019s hot, the merciless August sun beats through the large open skylight in his kitchen \u2013 an oven outside the oven. He had no idea when he would die, nor did it matter much to him \u2013 like most artists obsessed with the ephemeral, social justice, and pure poetry (often called \u201cmy work\u2019), death was only another bureaucratic hassle for the living; whether it came or went, you never even noticed. That relentless work<\/em> was enough reason to pursue the transformation of musical thinking, composition, and practice in his own lifetime. It never stopped, and if he ran out of ideas he would consult his paramount inspirations and rewrite them \u2013 Thoreau, Joyce, Satie, himself, Buckminster Fuller, the NY Times \u2013 all infinite sources for his musical sound, along with concepts of creating an equilibrium between anything and anything else, of bringing human birthrates under control, or of accepting the totality of the confusion we live in… He assured me one broiling summer night at his place on the corner of Sixth Avenue and 18th<\/sup> Street, with the average level of ambient noise hanging around 90 decibels, and where one could simply not shut the windows, god forbid install air conditioning, that the street was so musical, varied and so imaginatively evolving and unpredictable, he\u2019d come to hear it as a magnificent natural symphony with no end or beginning. (Just 3 years later, with Cage now gone, I sat at his desk recording that very street symphony he loved.)<\/p>\n

One does not need stories about Cage to tell over and over, just stop what you are doing and listen. Listen to anything, or try not to listen, think about it or do not think about it, and you will have a John Cage story.<\/p>\n

In this centennial year of John Cage\u2019s birth there are 75 special events (announced at the John Cage Trust site as of July 15th<\/sup>) happening around the world. Just like the continual anniversaries of Mozart or Bach \u2013 all figures who have become the objects of curiosity, affection, love, contention, celebrities of the human imagination, global purveyors of nonstop entertainment, joie de vivre<\/em>, and mythical transcendental powers.<\/p>\n

Some of Cage\u2019s numerous detractors will be eating crow, as they see that the John Cage phenomenon is not just a passing fancy but a genuine addition to the history, the architecture, and even the bumbling economy of the contemporary musical experience. Cage\u2019s music has not only been heard by untold numbers of people but it has amazingly provided employment to thousands of people engaged in writing, broadcasting, photographing, publishing, selling, promoting, wiring, sound reinforcing, lighting, practicing, photocopying, rehearsing, piano tuning, blogging, performing, lecturing, selling T-shirts-CDs-books-MP3 downloads, cleaning, and cooking.<\/p>\n

It has above all provided discovery and joy in the ability to make and appreciate sounds liberated from ego, emotion, and even meaning.<\/p>\n

Already at the Angelica Festival in Bologna 2008 with Boletus Edulis: Musica Pendolare<\/em> for the Take the Cage Train<\/em> project, and on to 2009 and 2010 when the Huddersfield New Music Festival took a jump start to this years Cage year, I was happy to participate in all of these rich programs, on trains, in pubs, on icy plazas, with roving accordion bands, and porcini pig-outs.<\/p>\n

During this Year Of Cage, my music and I are involved in several celebrative events:<\/p>\n