John Cage & Morton Feldman: A Conversation

I love this 3-hour conversation between Morton Feldman and John Cage recorded in 1967. An excerpt:

Morton Feldman: Well, this weekend I was on the beach.
John Cage: Yes.
MF: ... And on the beach these days are transistor radios.
JC: Yes.
MF: ... blaring out rock 'n' roll.
JC: Yes.
MF: All over.
JC: Yes. And you didn't enjoy it?
MF: Not particularly. I adjusted to it.
JC: How?
MF: By saying that... Well, I thought of the sun and the sea as a lesser evil.
JC: You know how I adjusted to that problem of the radio in the environment?  Very much as the primitive people adjusted to the animals which frightened them, and which, probably as you say, were intrusions. They drew pictures of them on their caves. And so I simply made a piece using radios. Now, whenever I hear radios - even a single one, not just twelve at a time, as you must have heard on the beach, at least - I think, "Well, they're just playing my piece."

Comments

[Rob S.]

I'm going to start drawing Kenny G's on my walls. Just Kidding!

[Rix]

"Take a sample of sand from the surface to a depth of about three or four inches. Knead the sand in the pail for two or three minutes by hand, then pour most of the water into a small glass. Examine it there with a strong hand lens. You will see without trouble some of the amazingly active interstitial fauna and flora. For some of the smallest forms, you will need a stereo or dissecting microscope."

Donald Zinn, The Handbook for Beach Strollers

[windfate]

what a part of history! marvelous. it's as though composers cage and feldman invented podcasting almost 40 years ago! philosophers salute. this is amazing stuff here.