The Selected Letters of John Cage. John Cage
It can be seen that radio and film work to produce sound effects is a commercial exploitation of the field that interested Russolo. Only difference is that radio and film companies use the materials representatively, and Russolo wanted to organize them for “Futurist Noise.” Mills in his book, A Fugue in Cycles and Bels,68 suggests that through the acquisition of a library of templates, i.e., film library, the most practical exploration of sound may be made. Douglas Schearer, MGM Sound Engineer, agrees. I believe that film will make noise available for musical purposes.
Russolo’s work is perhaps the only example of what you call in your article “a revolutionary reaction on the part of Art against itself.” He had, however, a more positive side too. That was his awareness of the importance of the machine and of electricity.
Do I make it clear that none of these workers were concerned with either prettiness or ugliness? Neither were they concerned with the Science of Harmony. Some of them were concerned with deeper meaning. Varese surely was. There’s a lot of deeper meaning in just plain experimentation. None of them considered the raw materials they used as music; they did consider what they made out of the materials music, however. Lots of people, hearing this music, liked it, even considered some of it pretty. See articles in Modern Music,69 or letters I’ve received. None of the workers “proudly declared it had no meaning at all.” Compositions reheard gather meaning like stones gather moss. None of the workers moved out into the sunshine or got out on limbs. All of them worked hard, against almost overwhelming odds, worked honestly. I don’t know of any examples of dishonest work in this field.
I was unaware of the background I have outlined when I began my work in this field. I did not know about any of the above accomplishments except those of Varese in his Ionization. I had studied harmony with Weiss without liking it or feeling any natural inclination to use it. I had written a lot of dissonant linear music. I then studied counterpoint, form and analysis with Schoenberg. I saw the New Music publication of Percussion Music, heard Schoenberg call it nonsense, doubted whether it was nonsense. I saw some abstract films made by Oscar Fischinger,70 talked with him, and began the writing of my first Quartet for Percussion. I organized the composition on a rhythmic basis, indicating no instruments. Friends helped me perform it on kitchen utensils, pieces of wood, tire rims, brake drums, etc. I was unaware at the time that I was doing what many negro street musicians in New Orleans had done. I was sharing points of view of Schoenberg and hot jazz combined. I gave private performances of the results and everyone encouraged going ahead. People said, Wonderful, etc. I rationalized the whole thing with reference to the overtone series, that is, I said our ears are in one of the high octaves where we are able to compose + hear music without reference to a fundamental tone underlying the entire composition. We are no longer pedestrian, but can fly piloted by other means of control than the old harmonic ones. I defined music for myself as Organized Sound. And I still define it that way.
In order to make a living I worked with dancers, made accompaniments for their choreography. I also made experiments, both in Los Angeles and Seattle later in the amplification of small sounds, found that delicate differences of amplitude were brought about through the use of electrical amplification, and that marvelous experiences in the field of new timbres existed all about us: cellophane crumpled in front of a microphone and unlimited other possibilities.
I found in Seattle, and have ever since, that dancers want to avoid any oriental references that they think percussion brings with it. Most of them are afraid of rhythmic complexities, or even unusual simple rhythmic combinations. It was therefor necessary to leave the field of dance accompaniment for the presentation of serious work in the field of experimental music. I presented on December 9, 1938, a concert of percussion music in Seattle, the first complete concert of this kind in America. It presented my own compositions and some of those printed in the New Music Edition. It was received with great enthusiasm and lots of people asked for another concert and many volunteered to play. I wrote to composers, told them about our having instruments, players, interest, invited the contribution of scores. In this way the literature of percussion music grew from three or four compositions in 1934 to about 50 at the present time. It became clear to me that although all of the compositions I received were different that they had one thing in common: the desire to explore sound and rhythm, and to organize the results of the exploration. One composer sent compositions which were superficial; I returned them unhesitatingly. For the others and for myself, notation was never the problem you make it in your article. We were definitely able to notate what we wanted played. I changed in my own work to a very clear indication of instruments, for now I had instruments and wrote for particular ones. Russell’s work was never hot jazz, because hot jazz is improvised and Russell’s work was composed. His ideas were always musical and exciting. I continued giving concerts and the interest continued to grow. I gave a concert at Mills in the summer of 1939 under the auspices of the Bennington School.71 For this reason, in their first letter to me, Mills College asked for a second percussion concert. In no sense did they “let me show what I could do.” They knew what I could do and liked it. I found myself last summer in an excellent environment with the Bauhaus people. New materials, cooperation with technological advances. I had meanwhile become aware of the background of my work and had made two compositions using mechanical possibilities, and was interested to establish a center of experimental music which would continue the work done with percussion instruments and add the use of mechanical and electrical means for further exploration of the field of sound and rhythm. Function: research, composition, performance. Mills College did not put me off when I suggested this center to them. Dr. Reinhardt on the contrary gave me assurance of the College’s readiness to cooperate with me providing I found the necessary support. This is usual in the case of new departments in a college. Moholy-Nagy begged me to come to Chicago. Funds also necessary. In looking for support, I made many new contacts, learned a lot. For one thing became acquainted with new technological advances, including the possibilities of film. Began to think of synthetic music, that is, music made through the use of film and film editing, enabling a composer to compose directly without the use of any musical instruments. This field is only one of the fields which interests me, and could be used in combination with other mechanical and electrical means.
I would prefer to omit the sob-stuff from the article. It has no place. If you want to make people cry, talk about Russolo who is poor and discouraged in Italy. Varese is pretty sad too.
The trouble with the big companies is not that they are making things hard for me, but that in many instances they exploit new materials for commercial purposes. Solovox.72 But after all they want to play too, and this is a free country.
Burton Perry is a sound engineer who didn’t put me off. He just doesn’t have funds either.
Please try a new article. Perhaps this letter should go on to something else, but it’s getting awfully Xmassy around here and I can’t concentrate any longer.
P.S. This letter gives you an historical background and emphasizes the only point all percussion composers have in common: desire to organize results of an exploration of sound and rhythm made through the use of percussion, mechanical, electrical, and film means. That’s the only thing they have in common. Their aesthetic points of view differ.
To Edgard Varèse
January 3, 1941 | 228 17th Avenue, San Francisco
Dear Mr. Varese,
I’ve read your article, “Organized Sound for the Sound Film,”73 which was published in the Commonweal. I think it’s the best and most exciting article about music that I’ve ever read. I hope that your work is established in some laboratory. It certainly should be. The general lack of audacity, desire to explore, on the part of heads of companies having laboratories is increasingly ununderstandable.
I have not yet had any actual success in my attempts to establish a center of experimental music. Several institutions are interested but don’t seem to have any funds. They complain too of having no background for something so new, which is silly, because they are surrounded by this background.
I spoke with John Steinbeck about your working with him.74 It seems that there was some