Dear Mathias, Many thanks indeed for your message. It has troubled me greatly that we have disagreed over this issue, when we have seen eye to eye on everything else which has come up for discussion. For that reason I had decided earlier this evening not to pursue the thread any further. Besides, we had all drifted a long way from lutes, and I felt it was time we left the 20th century with its soul-searching and navel-gazing. So I left my computer, and nipped down to The Plough for a few pints and a return to normality. As luck would have it, I met up with a couple of friends, who, believe it or not, were in the middle of discussing the relative merits of conceptual art. Aaaaaaaaarrrrgghh! I just can't escape from Cage. Never mind. The beer was good. :-)
All the best, Stewart. ----- Original Message ----- From: ""Mathias R�sel"" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Lutelist" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, December 20, 2003 9:28 PM Subject: Re: John Cage on Lute > Dear Stewart, > > I'm sorry you were disappointed. I didn't mean to attack you. When I wrote the list has > been used to reading your moderate statements I meant to say that one of the features I > for one do appreciate of your contributions is that they are based on reason and > plausibility rather than on taste, in general. > > However, as for resentment-listening, I think, things are rather clear. Cage's 4'33" > silence does not fit into what you'd expect from a piece of art music. As a result, you > consider Cage's piece as ridiculous (to say nothing more). This very attitude is > resentment-listening. There is nothing wrong with it. It's like prejudices everyone needs > to stabilize his or her inner world order. But speaking of art, resentment-listening is > simply an obstacle to new experiences (and that's one thing art is for, isn't it). > > As regards Cage's silence piece -- wasn't it John Lennon who had a piece called Two > Minutes Silence on one of his records? Don't know if he felt inspired by or even knew > Cage, but there must be something to a piece of silence, I guess. (I shall not repeat what > other have already said about sound experience and so on.) -- When I had lessons in guitar > playing I was taught to accurately stop strings when a voice ends and not let it fade out. > A break or a pause integrally belongs to the piece of music I play. I would strogly object > to a view that a pause is not music, even if a whole piece consists of only pauses. > > Best wishes, > > Mathias
