Cage and Experimental Music

I slipped and read a MacLaren item...

It is absolutely clear that MacLaren has not read John Cage himself
regarding the adoption of the term _experimental_. A quick glance at
_Silence_ will show that he initially rejected the name, completely aware
of the scientific use of the term which he felt inapplicable to his work.
The name, used by the press and some academics, did stick - much as
_minimalism_ has stuck to a later group of composers - and Cage accepted
this under the limited definition, that _experimental music_ involved a way
of working where aspects of the outcome were unforeseen by the composer.
Cage was always seeking a way of generating new or surprising music. Since
so much of MacLaren�s own music ends up in a self-similar new-agey wash, I
suggest that he try chance operations in order to avoid some of the effects
of his own tastes or habits. In any case, in future postings, he best do
his homework and read what his target has actually said before attacking in
valuable computer time.

I myself have found it very useful to use chance operations in exploring
unfamilar tonal environments, and in one case, to determine the intonation
of a work. What is abundantly clear about any such algorithmic method is,
however, that the establishment of a division of responsibility between
composerly choices and a random procedure requires extremely deep thinking.
Anyone who has heard the Arditti quartet perrform Cage�s _FOUR_, or _Music
for 4_. or _Thirty Pieces for String Quartet_ has surely realized that Cage
was asking extremely deep and musical questions, and exploring a larger
scale of musical form than is familiar.

Daniel Wolf, Frankfurt

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