Chance Conversations: An Interview with Merce Cunningham and John Cage
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- Опубликовано: 26 июл 2009
- In the spring of 1981, during a residency at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, choreographer Merce Cunningham and composer John Cage sat down to discuss their work and artistic process. As frequent collaborators, Cage and Cunningham pioneered a new framework of performance. Their novel approach allowed for mediums to exist independently, or rather cohabitate, within a performance, thus abandoning the co-dependent model of dance and music. Cage and Cunningham go on to discuss the methodology and motivations behind chance operations, a term used to describe artistic decisions based on unpredictability. Wanting to free himself of his likes and dislikes, Cage describes how Zen Buddhism influenced his work, leading him to use tools of chance. These new methods, adopted by both Cunningham and Cage, overturned a whole foundation of thought around music, movement, and the process of creating art.
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That woman is so lucky to have had the chance to talk with both of these men.
She's great. She's Interested in their answers, free of ego, and never jumps in if things are not rattling along.
I love both their laughters.
Me too. The photos of their laughters are awesome :)
They are absolutely brilliant.
I just want to hug them both
Iv been struggeling to write an essay on these 2 for a couple of days now. This interview has been a massive help. thanks.
Beautiful calculated people thinking before they speak.
So unlike many today.
Totally agreed
Agreed!
wonderful conversation
I love how wonderfully adventurous, and flexible they are in their approach to their art, and life. They seem like truly joyful, and fulfilled human beings.
They are both such brilliant and loving people :)
Excellent class on the creative process: very inspirational.
I was attending the renowned Cooper Union School for the Advancemnt of Art and Architecture in New York City and one evening took in a performance at Lincoln Center in the late 60's. Before the show began, on a warm summer evening, I was waiting in the elegant plaza, enjoying the breeze as well as the sophisticated crowd. All at once there I was standing in front of Cunningham and Cage, and I knew exactly who they were. Well dressed and tall...they both gave me a delightful nod. Admittedly in those salad days I was a cute young man...and I think they figured so, as well. I returned the nod and shyly moved on. Were it today, I would have approached and engaged then in a lively conversation.
"It's not starting from an idea. Not starting even from the expression of the same feeling nor an exposition of the same idea but rather simply being together in the same place at the same time and leaving space around each art so that neither art has to glue itself to a particular . . ." John Cage
ok
Holly -- yes - Indeterminancy and calligraphy . chance and space. Form IS content .
2:33 for those wondering
two Masters!!!! this is a good class!
Cage's voice is so relazing. I wish someone just took interview clips of him and made an asmr video.
I met them both Charming
great interview! Thank you, Walker Art Center!
Doors opened listening to this itw #thankyou
thank you verry much for this video !! great !!!!
For those of you who didn't know, these two were romantically involved at this time. Not that it particularly matters, but interesting piece of background knowledge
What
I thought they were a couple until the end of their lives, they certainly behave like people that love and respect each other.
what wonderful collaborators and lovers
very nice video, thank you!
Bert and Ernie.
que artistas tan geniales
this is most deficient from all ways.thank you.
Brilliant
Very goooood♥️♥️❤️
@beatlesmack9
Mr Cage wrote quite a bit of wonderful "straight" music for strings and piano. His compositions in the more classical style are very lovely and beautiful.
a creative thinker
Genteel gentlemen. Geniuses.
I would have gave an arm to meet them back then...
listen to Cage playing Morton Feldman.The backround noise from coughing to car honking is emiinent.
@speedskis777 they seem to me to be speaking quite plainly and clearly about their working processes, which i find refreshing, especially considering how difficult their work can seem. to know the specific roots and bases of their practices is illuminating to me. mine is just one perspective, but maybe watch the interview again and reconsider their what they are saying about their approaches, or perhaps take a look at the i ching, for example. idk, maybe it just isn't for everyone.
@beatlesmack9 Whether what he composes is music or something else is a separate question ----- he certainly composed, that is, put things together ---- instructions involved in the production of sounds. Cage even said himself that if one has trouble referring to what he is composing as music one can call it something else.
i'm sure John would have loved that.
@beatlesmack9
music IS sound, sound IS music...
best regards... :)
Surely the chance traffic and strange noises in the background are no mistake, or are they…hmm.
Does anyone know if there was ever a joint interview between Cage , Cunningham and Rauschenberg. Perhaps about Aeon or something in relation to their collaborations?
I wondered the same thing. I find this discussion to be incredibly important. Would love to see more group interviews!
I hope it was intentional...it sounds fantastic... like the weather...
Hello everybody. Any idea where to get this on DVD??// to buy it?
Please help.
@Consciousish Favorite comment of 2011.
where can i see these performances? does any one know?
@SnapshotsMusic No. He wasn't. Although Zappa did say something along the lines of finding John Cage's work more interesting to read and how it was written rather than how it actually sounded.
That’s how I think about Zappa’s music. LOL
Great conversation ... Merce is Harpo Marx with a towering intellect..... Merce came here in 83 and the Arts Assembly / Cultural Council had to apologize to the backward arts community here that 'next time we'll use real music." At his lecture at Jacksonville Univ. I asked his influence on performance art ( then real hot ). Merce emphatically but gently answered me " I Do Dances" ... The dance students in attendance had no idea who he was and could only ask inane questions about 'making it ' in the dance world..... he was very patient and gracious to these imbeciles.
A valid opinion on an artform is not predicated on knowing the difference between right and write, or even the omission of punctuation,
zaneisthemaster. I am not agreeing with this opinion, just not judging it on usage of language. Maybe you misinterpreted the meaning of the phrase "he didn't right music". Cage certainly did turn music or sound on it's ass for us to consider.
21:45
Chance can be translated so differently if we want to keep their definition of chance straight
Hello, may anybody tell me which is the book that Cage pronounce at minute 26:20 please?.
Thank you very much in advance.
Ana.
Lankavatara Sutra for anyone wondering :)
@@AttitudeCastle Thank you! 😊👏🏻
@sleepytimejesse I think it was intentional.
- "The difference between ear and eye system is you can hear behind them"
0.0 After 5 secs
- "it's true"
Why words like that spoken from them are so different than from a kindergarten child?
Who is the interviewer?
yo mamma
I was going to ask the same thing.
merce looks like an elf
@beatlesmack9 compose, from latin componere, com - together; ponere - to put. a composer is someone who puts together.
Matt Bullock was here
Probably it was Cage's idea, you know, for staying close to the noise.
Probably Johnny Cage.
Who the fuck's idea was it to sit awkwardly in the center of a large gymnasium next to a busy road.
Have you heard John Cage talk about traffic?
Virgil Thomson, composer and writer, said John Cage had 'no ear'. Was he right?
Yes.
no. To take one example, try the String Quartet in Four Parts. It's delightful.
@sleepytimejesse Yeah, really. Plus the reporter seems either inexperienced or simply awkward.
@beatlesmack9 i dont feel you should have a valid opinion because you dont know the difference between right and write
this is a realy good interview
if you are a fan of joh cage you have to hear
gabriel williams - time travel in music
I'd like to know the woman's name. Maybe I missed it.
one dislike
how stupid !
We're so open minded, our brains have fallen to the ground.
the skull is not the mind
john cage is a charlatan whose success can be attributed to his charisma and wit, but not to his talent nor ability as a composer. love listening to his interviews, far more than his "music".
I wouldn't call him a charlatan, but I also wouldn't call him an artist.
AliIKarimi you obviously did not listen to him- he clearly outlined a project that dealt with time and cited tradition from India as an impetus.
+AliIKarimi I'm glad you like his interviews, but I don't agree with your criticism of his talents and composing ability. Perhaps you should judge a discipline or artistic expression you understand. Maybe instead of labeling him a "charlatan" you could just state that you don't understand his art. I AM pleased that he elicited a reaction from you, which possibly was his intent.
You, on the other hand, are just someone who comments on You Tube videos.
charaltan? in which sense?
I don't feel John Cage can rightly be called a composer because he didn't right music, but sound, and they are not the same
interestingly enough, john cage said the same thing at one point, preferring to be called an inventor rather than a composer.
@@jameskong3894 Oh yes, you’re right! I forget about that comment he made. Interesting!
In addition to the graphic scores and chance procedure pieces he composed many more traditional scores
@@jameskong3894 i think Schoenberg allegedly made this comment about Cage.
@beatlesmack9
music IS sound, sound IS music...
best regards... :)