Like many composers I was in touch with the world of John CAGE.
Cage travelled always around the world in his jeans packet, also that evening in "L' ATELIER St. ANNE" (1982, Brussels) when I met JOHN CAGE.
Face-to-face, I honestly posed him a question about the freedom
of the musician / performer, but I saw immediately a crash in
his face, without any warmth.
My question:
"If you decide previously to use I Tsjing or an other
aleatoric way of chance in your musical performance, doesn't
this human intervention interfers with the freedom of real music,
as you confirm?"
My question - or was it my appearance?- seemed to shock John Cage deeply as if I came from Jupiter. Was he annoyed?
He never answered my question at all. It was more a call off.
From that moment on I didn't admire John Cage as a star in the field of new music.
I appreciate him now as a one of us, as a human artist. However, every day I still care for his innovative approach to cover silence as sound.
In keeping with Zen - tradition, John Cage probably liked to see himself as a poser of questions rather than a provider of answers.
RECOMMENDED Click and read the important essay of Margaret Leng TAN about > Silent Revolution
© P-ART Full updated Summer 2004