The Selected Letters of John Cage. John Cage
been very influential but in his own work finally unimportant is refusing to accept the challenge he so bravely gave us.
To Pierre Boulez
December 18, 1950 | [New York City]
My dear Pierre
Yesterday evening, we heard your Sonata; David Tudor239 played it (magnificently, too) instead of Masselos. Tudor is going to make a recording for you, and, if you like, we could press for a public recording. (Many thanks for the disc of Soleil des Eaux;240 Heugel241 and you both sent me a copy. I have given one of them to Tudor. David Tudor is twenty-five, like you, and he is a friend of Morton Feldman.242) Before Masselos had begun work on the Sonata, Feldman told me that Tudor had already devoted three months of study to the work (this was in spring/summer). From that it was obvious to choose Tudor (my French is too bad; forgive me if I continue in English). Tudor had spontaneously devoted himself to the labor of understanding and playing the Sonata; I loaned him the original which you had given me with the sketches.243 He studied French in order to read your articles in Contrepoint and Polyphonie (by the way, they never send me these,—although I subscribed), and he has made a collection and study of Artaud.244 He is an extraordinary person, and at the concert (as I was turning pages for him) I had feelings of an exaltation equal to that you had introduced me to at 4 rue Beautreillis. Naturally the audience was divided (for the various reasons audiences are), but I can tell you with joy that you have here a strong and devoted following. Your music gives to those who love it an arousing and breathtaking enlightenment. I am still always trembling afterwards. After the concert Tudor, Feldman and I with 20 others celebrated and then finally at 4 a.m. the three of us were alone walking through the streets still talking of you and music. The evening before Tudor had played in my apartment and there were many who came to hear, including Varèse, Maro Ajemian, Mrs. E. E. Cummings,245 etc., etc., etc. I enclose some critical notices (which are not studies), programme, etc. Now we want to prepare a performance of the String Quartet, when can the score + parts be available? We have a real hunger.
[in the margin, attached by an arrow to the foregoing phrase] I would love to arrange a second invitation here for you on the occasion of the Quartet (performance). As you see, I know nothing about the war.246
It was a great joy to hear many times all 4 mvts. of the Sonata (a pleasure you had not given me); the entire work is marvelous but the 4th mvt. among them is transcendent.
If you could take the time to write to Tudor (perhaps after he sends you a recording) he would be very happy I know. His address is 69 E. 4th St., N.Y.C.
Feldman’s music is extremely beautiful now. It changes with each piece; I find him my closest friend now among the composers here.
My music too is changing. I am writing now an entire evening of music for Merce to be done January 17 (flute, trumpet, 4 percussion players, piano, not prepared, violin and cello).247 I still have one mvt. of the Concerto for Prepared Piano and Orchestra to complete; it may be performed in March in Hartford, Connecticut. My string quartet will also be done in March both in Hartford and here in New York. For the Concerto and the ballet I use charts giving in the form of a checkerboard pre-orchestrated combinations of sound; it is evident that “moves” may be made on this “board” followed by corresponding or non-corresponding moves. In the Concerto there are 2 such charts (one for the orchestra + one for the piano) bringing about the possibility of “given” relationships. In the dance music the idea of a gradual metamorphosis of the chart into a new chart is employed. Two other ideas are in my mind now: that each square of the chart be taken as the (at that moment) visible member of a large family of sounds; and the other idea that 4 charts, each one referring to only one characteristic of sound, could be used instead of one. All this brings me closer to a “chance” or if you like to an un-aesthetic choice. I keep, of course, the means of rhythmic structure feeling that that is the “espace sonore” in which these sounds may exist and change. Composition becomes “throwing sound into silence,” and rhythm which in my Sonatas had been one of breathing becomes now one of a flow of sound and silence. I will send you soon some results.
Thank you again for the recording of your orchestral work (which, seems to me, must be an earlier work248); the parts that interest me the most are those at the beginning and at the end. I admire the separation of voice and orchestra at the beginning. The entire continuity is marvelously poetic and changing and suggests an opera. But I have the feeling that this is an earlier work than those of yours I am attached to through having heard or seen more often. In other words you have walked on to use your metaphor of one foot in front of the other. Tell me, if what I say is wrong.
Your Sonata is still in our ears, and gratitude will never cease. Those who had no courage to directly listen are troubled; you have increased the danger their apathy brings them to. But now I am no longer one of a few Americans who are devoted to you, but one of many.
I would still love to publish one of Yvette G[rimaud]’s works.
[in the left margin] How are friends! Gatti, Stephane and Souvtchinsky. The feminine principle.
[above] Merry Xmas! Happy New Year!
[in the right margin] How are you? I am unwell occasionally.
To David Tudor249
[Between January 21 and 27, 1951] | [New York]
Dear David:
Morty just left and you can see from this paper something of what we were doing this evening.250 It was a question of finding a way of writing the graph music on transparent paper so that it can be reproduced cheaply, and what you see here was a transitional stage, the final outcome is stunning and perfectly clear but only the utterly essential lines remain. Vertical lines (indicating the measures) are dotted (which makes the solid thick lines of the sounds clear). The horizontal lines are thin but only present when needed. The result is a space design very beautiful to look at and easy to read. You will see it later of course when you come back.
Merce’s concert was sensational and very controversial.251 People either loved or hated it. I myself had a fine time. And all those directly concerned did too. Morty’s and Christian’s pieces were both hissed and bravoed. Some people left in the middle of the evening. I was delighted with all the music including my own. Now of course it is difficult for me to write about it because I have begun work on the Concerto again,252 and my feeling is displaced from the ballet. But the sounds were such that I have no fears (if I had them before) about the work I am doing. And Morty and Xian253 liked it too, so what is necessary more? I failed in making a recording (for lack of microphone and wire at last minute and rehearsal exigencies). Morty Seymour Barab254 and Maro helped me finish the copying. And Maro worked very hard on the piano part which she said was difficult and which she never played acceptably until the performance + even then left out or muddled up whole sections. However it went as a whole fairly well and we managed to stay with the dancers. There was a party here afterward, and we all drank toasts to you and to Boulez.
Virgil tells me that he’s not convinced about Morty, that he is too much the “anointed one” (oil dripping off his shoulders). However, I’m more or less generally broadcasting my faith in his work and to the point of fanaticism. I spent a troublesome hr. + ½ arguing with Arthur Berger255 re Morty and Xian’s music because Arthur has to review the concert next Sunday. And then another hr. with Minna Lederman, who began to take the music more seriously when I explained Suzuki’s identification of subject and object vs. the usual cause and effect thought. She even invited me to dinner to talk further. And then we will hear Varese’s Ionization up at Juilliard with Dallapiccola, Krenek and Stravinsky.256
As I go on with the Concerto, I think only of your playing it and hope your circumstances will permit that. I miss you very deeply,—and will be very happy when you come back.
I am going to apply for a renewal of the Guggenheim; I phoned them and still have time. I wrote a funny article for Musical