tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21999805.post3168947732017041102..comments2024-03-28T19:56:32.848-05:00Comments on Anecdotal Evidence: `I Just Dance'Patrick Kurphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08436175583386298032noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21999805.post-62763894348827568012014-05-10T09:28:46.030-05:002014-05-10T09:28:46.030-05:00John Cage’s “ravings?” No. Cage was a cool custome...John Cage’s “ravings?” No. Cage was a cool customer. You might think he was full of it, but you can hardly call his writings “wild, irrational, or incoherent talk,” which is how one on-line dictionary defines “ravings.”<br /><br /> “If you develop an ear for sounds that are musical it is like developing an ego. You begin to refuse sounds that are not musical and that way cut yourself off from a good deal of experience.”<br /><br />You can agree, disagree, or brand Cage as a poseur, but that well-put, unpretentious, reasoned argument is typical of Cage’s writing style. <br /><br /> I happen not to think Cage was full of it. I think of both Cage and Warhol not as great artists (with a few exceptions, their work leaves me unmoved), but great teachers: they opened our ears and our eyes. <br /><br /> And Fred Astaire? I used to hang around with folks in modern dance companies. Their nearly unanimous judgment was that Astaire was the greatest contemporary dancer. Balanchine, Nureyev and Baryshnikov are on record as agreeing. Here’s Baryshnikov: “What do dancers think of Fred Astaire? It's no secret. We hate him. He gives us a complex because he's too perfect. His perfection is an absurdity. It's too hard to face.”<br /><br /> It’s an attitude akin to Horowitz’s about Art Tatum: “If Art Tatum took up classical music seriously, I’d quit my job the next day.”Denkof Zwemmenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01118582264573609926noreply@blogger.com