Artnet News: 640-Year-Long John Cage Piece Changes Chord! And Other Art World Matters
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John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer, artist, and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde. Critics have lauded him as one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. He was also instrumental in the development of modern dance, mostly t…
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culture · American avant-garde composer (1912–1992) · composer · writer · poet · university teacher · musicologist · philosopher · painter · music theorist · illustrator · draftsperson · also John Cage, John Milton Cage Jr., John Milton Cage, Jr., John Milton, Jr. Cage, J. C., Cage
Born 5 September 1912 · Died 12 August 1992 · Q180727
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Performance of John Cage's 4'33" by Eikanger-Bjørsvik
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2026· 1 entry
2024· 6 entries
The Guardian: Sound advice from John Cage | Letters
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The Guardian: Want to get rid of a earworm? Try John Cage | Letters
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The New Criterion: John Cage, 1912-1992
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KCUR 89.3 FM: A 639-year-long John Cage organ performance strikes a new chord in Germany
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Yahoo: 639-year-long John Cage organ piece in German church changes chord
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The Guardian: ‘There’s a certain madness to it’ … fans await new chord in John Cage gig with 616 years left to run
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2021· 2 entries
The Guardian: John Cage: Number Pieces review | Andrew Clements's classical album of the week
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The Guardian: How John Cage, the great disrupter, had the last laugh - by writing beautiful music
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2020· 2 entries
The Guardian: Slowly does it: chord changes in John Cage's 639-year-long organ piece
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The Guardian: A mushroom-related brush with mortality: how John Cage fell for fungi
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2014· 1 entry
Hyperallergic: John Cage: Mushroom Hunter
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2012· 1 entry
Among a wide range of American and international centennial celebrations, an eight-day festival was held in Washington DC, with venues found notably more among the city's art museums and universities than performance spa
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2003· 1 entry
Because the music-group's leader Thom Yorke considered Cage one of his "all-time art heroes"
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1998· 2 entries
Released album “Works for Prepared Piano”.
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Released album “Complete Piano Music, Volume 2: Music for Piano 1-85 / Electronic Music for Piano”.
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1997· 7 entries
Released album “Sonatas and Interludes”.
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Released album “The Piano Concertos”.
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Released album “Complete Piano Music, Volume 1: The Prepared Piano 1940-1952”.
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Released album “Two² / Experiences / 3 Dances”.
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Released album “Cage: Two⁴ / Hosokawa: In die Tiefe der Zeit”.
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Released album “Etudes Australes”.
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Released album “Lou Harrison: A Portrait”.
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1996· 10 entries
Released album “John Cage: One⁸ / Sofia Gubaidulina: Zehn Präludien für Violoncello solo”.
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Released album “Music for Eight”.
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Released album “Imaginary Landscapes”.
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Released album “Dream / Sonatas and Interludes”.
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Released album “Works for Piano & Prepared Piano, Vol. IV”.
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Released album “The Piano Works 2: Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano”.
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Released album “Two⁴ / Two⁶ / Five² / Five⁵ / Seven / Seven²”.
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Released album “The Lost Works”.
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Released album “Cage / Pisaro / Frey / Beuger”.
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Released album “Ryoanji”.
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1995· 12 entries
Released album “Brant / Scelsi / Wolpe / Xenakis / Cage / Glass / Feldman”.
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Released album “The Contemporary American ‘C’”.
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Released album “In a Landscape”.
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Released album “Freeman Etudes”.
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Released album “Cage: In a Landscape / Solo for Piano with Bassoon / Bussotti: Aquila imperiale / Aquila imperiale con l'allodola e il topino da "Voliera - due soliiloqui"”.
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Released album “Europeras 3 & 4”.
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Released album “Sixty-Eight / Quartets I-VIII”.
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Released album “Annum per annum”.
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Released album “Six Melodies / Thirteen Harmonies”.
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Released album “Thirteen Harmonies”.
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Released album “The Number Pieces I”.
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Released album “New York School 3”.
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1994· 9 entries
Released album “Daughters of the Lonesome Isle”.
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Released album “Freeman Etudes, Books One and Two”.
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Released album “Carter: Variations for Orchestra / Schuller: Spectra / Babbitt: Correspondences / Cage: Atlas Eclipticalis”.
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Released album “16 Dances”.
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Released album “Ten / Ryoanji / Fourteen”.
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Released album “Freeman Etudes, Books Three and Four”.
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Released album “Europera 5”.
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Released album “Orchestral Works 1: 101 / Apartment House 1776 / Ryoanji”.
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Released album “Roaratorio”.
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1993· 8 entries
Released album “The Complete String Quartets, Vol. 2”.
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Released album “Music for ...”.
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Released album “Concert for Piano and Orchestra / Atlas Eclipticalis”.
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Released album “Thirteen”.
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Released album “New Piano Works From Europe and the Americas”.
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Released album “Winter Music”.
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Released album “Prelude for Meditation”.
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Released album “Sonatas and Interludes / Music for Marcel Duchamp / The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs”.
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1992· 13 entries
Released album “Fifty-Eight”.
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Accompanied by the live performance of the orchestra piece 103
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Died 1992-08-12.
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While preparing evening tea for himself and Cunningham, Cage had another stroke
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“Value judgments are destructive to our proper business, which is curiosity and awareness.”
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Released album “Indeterminacy: New Aspect of Form in Instrumental and Electronic Music”.
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Released album “The Barton Workshop Plays John Cage”.
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Released album “Pianos and Voices”.
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“I can't understand why people are afraid of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones.”
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Released album “Litany for the Whale”.
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“I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones.”
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Released album “Atlas Eclipticalis”.
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By Foundation for Contemporary Arts in honor of the late composer, with recipients including Meredith Monk, Robert Ashley, and Toshi Ichiyanagi
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1991· 10 entries
Released album “Music for Merce Cunningham”.
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Released album “Works for Percussion”.
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Released album “Works for Cello / Lecture on Nothing”.
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Released album “Works for Piano, Toy Piano & Prepared Piano, Vol. III”.
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Released album “The Perilous Night / Four Walls”.
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Released album “Eric Satie: Socrate / John Cage: Cheap Imitation”.
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Released album “Chorals / Cheap Imitation / Freeman Etudes I-VIII”.
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Released album “First Construction”.
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Released album “Sixty-Two Mesostics re Merce Cunningham”.
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Released album “45′ / 34′46.776″ / 31′57.9864″ / 27′10.554″ / 26′1.1499″ / 4′33″ / Music for Five / Two”.
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1990· 2 entries
Released album “Singing Through”.
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Released album “Microtonal Works by Partch, Cage, Labarbara, Drummond”.
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1989· 4 entries
Awarded Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy (1989).
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Released album “The Complete String Quartets, Vol. 1”.
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Released album “Three Constructions”.
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Released album “Sonatas & Interludes for Prepared Piano”.
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1988· 4 entries
Released album “Music of Changes”.
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Released album “Sonic Encounters”.
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Released album “Works for Piano & Prepared Piano, Vol. II”.
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Released album “Works for Piano & Prepared Piano, Vol. I”.
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1987· 3 entries
Released album “Thirty Pieces for Five Orchestras / Music for Piano”.
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Was opera: Cage produced five operas, all sharing the same title Europera, between 1987 and 1991
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Cage completed a piece called Two, for flute and piano, dedicated to performers Roberto Fabbriciani and Carlo Neri
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1986· 3 entries
Released album “Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano”.
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Received an honorary doctorate from the California Institute of the Arts
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Released album “Contemporary Piano Music”.
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1985· 2 entries
Is not only the fire he has set aside for so long—the fire of passion—but also fire as transitoriness and fragility
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Released album “Etudes Boreales / Ryoanji”.
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1984· 2 entries
Released album “The Kroumata Percussion Ensemble 2”.
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Released album “Sixteen Dances”.
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1983· 2 entries
Worked with watercolors using methods such as controlled pours, chance-derived grids, and painting around stones with brushes made from feathers, techniques that emphasized indeterminacy within a structured process
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Started using various unconventional materials such as cotton batting, foam, etc
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1981· 1 entry
Released album “Digital Percussion”.
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1980· 1 entry
Released album “Nocturne / Six Melodies / Amores / A Valentine Out of Season / Music for Marcel Duchamp”.
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1979· 1 entry
Cage's Empty Words was first published by Wesleyan University Press
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1978· 1 entry
Released album “The Music of John Cage and Harry Partch”.
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1977· 1 entry
Released album “Cheap Imitation”.
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1976· 1 entry
Released album “Voices and Instruments”.
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1974· 1 entry
Released album “John Cage”.
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1973· 1 entry
Released album “John Cage: Three Dances / Steve Reich: Four Organs”.
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1970· 1 entry
Released album “Americana”.
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1969· 4 entries
Released album “John Cage: Atlas Eclipticalis • Winter Music • Cartridge Music / Dieter Schnebel: Glossolalie”.
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Cage produced the first fully notated work in years: Cheap Imitation for piano
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Where audience members were free to enter and leave at any time, moving throughout the space rather than remaining seated for the duration
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Released album “Cage & Hiller: HPSCHD / Johnston: String Quartet no. 2”.
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1968· 1 entry
Released album “Cage: Concerto for Prepared Piano & Orchestra / Foss: Baroque Variations”.
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1967· 3 entries
Cage's book A Year from Monday was first published by Wesleyan University Press
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Released album “New Electronic Music From Leaders of the Avant-Garde”.
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Released album “Electronic Music”.
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1966· 1 entry
Released album “Fontana Mix - Feed (Six Realizations of John Cage)”.
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1965· 1 entry
Betty Freeman set up an annual grant for living expenses for Cage which continued until his death
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1962· 1 entry
Originally comprised a single sentence: "In a situation provided with maximum amplification, perform a disciplined action", and in the first performance the disciplined action was Cage writing that sentence
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1961· 1 entry
Released album “Berio: Circles / Bussotti: Frammento / Cage: Aria With Fontana Mix”.
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1960· 1 entry
The composer was appointed a fellow on the faculty of the Center for Advanced Studies (now the Center for Humanities) in the Liberal Arts and Sciences at Wesleyan, where he started teaching classes in experimental music
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1952· 3 entries
At Woodstock, New York) caused an uproar in the audience
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Organized what has been called the first "happening" (see discussion below) in the United States, later titled Theatre Piece No
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Cage composed the piece that became his best-known and most controversial creation: 4′33″
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1951· 2 entries
Cost him a number of friendships and led to numerous criticisms from fellow composers
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Worsened so much that while working on Music of Changes, he prepared a set of instructions for Tudor as to how to complete the piece in the event of his death
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1949· 2 entries
Awarded Arts and Letters Award in Music (1949).
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Awarded Guggenheim Fellowship (1949).
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1946· 1 entry
His former teacher Richard Buhlig arranged for Cage to meet Berlin-born pianist Grete Sultan, who had escaped from Nazi persecution to New York in 1941
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1944· 1 entry
Appeared in Maya Deren's At Land, a 15-minute silent experimental film
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1938· 1 entry
On Cowell's recommendation, Cage drove to San Francisco to find employment and to seek out fellow Cowell student and composer Lou Harrison
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1933· 3 entries
Sent some of his compositions to Henry Cowell; the reply was a "rather vague letter", in which Cowell suggested that Cage study with Arnold Schoenberg—Cage's musical ideas at the time included composition based on a 2
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Cage became sufficiently good at composition to approach Schoenberg
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And started studying with Weiss as well as taking lessons from Cowell himself at The New School
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1930· 1 entry
Dropped out of Pomona, having come to believe that "college was of no use to a writer" after an incident described in his 1991 autobiographical statement:
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1928· 1 entry
Studied at Los Angeles High School (1928).
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1912· 1 entry
Born 1912-09-05.
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