Cage and microtonality

As for John Cage, whether one likes his music or not, he was the
major 20th American experimental composer. I must admit that I've never
felt comfortable with the notion that art should resemble nature in
its mode of operation, as extreme randomness is not really nature's way.
I have also resented his dismissal of microtonality as "just another wing
on the academy," but his work always has seemed to sound (and look) much
better than one would expect from the verbal description of its
structural and philosophical basis. Much of it is very good music
irrespective of its composer's aesthetic principles.

Furthermore, Cage has in fact composed with microtones in such works
as Ryoanji (in 1/4-tones, performed out of doors at the dedication of
the sculpture garden of the Houston Museum of Fine Arts and joined by
an exhibit of his engravings) and HPSCHD, a computer collaboration with
Lejaren Hiller, which used various ET's up to 51 or 53-tet. Johnny
Reinhard has programed Cage's "Sonatas and Preludes for Prepared Piano"
on his AFMM concert series as a microtonal work and Dean Drummond has
performed a transcription of "Haika," with Cage's permission, on
the justly-tuned aluminum tube metallophone, the Zoomoozophone.

Cage also inspired James Tenney to write an important theoretical essay
"John Cage and the Theory of Harmony." (I'm ad-libbing this AM, so I
may not have the titles word-perfect.)

--John



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