About “John Cage: Lecture on the Weather,” a 23-day festival of work by or inspired by Cage at the Burchfield Penney, Colin has this to say:
"For the uninitiated, among whose ranks I count myself, Cage’s musical compositions pose a range of difficulties. They demand a wide-open mind as a bare minimum prerequisite. On top of that, they require the listener to enter an almost meditative state, which is all the more difficult to achieve because of the randomized clamor of the music itself.Read the entire piece here.
But even for newbies, Cage’s concepts can have a profound and immediate effect. He taught people, for instance, that any sound in the world can be music. And that silence, like white space in graphic design or aimless daydreaming in life, is central both to our understanding of music and to music itself. The concepts go far deeper, of course, into subjects like the ego, the role of chance and imperialist politics (see his beloved “Lecture on the Weather,” with two more performances scheduled for Thursday and Saturday).
The lesson of the festival tells us something about the infinite paths that can lead an individual to deep appreciation for an artist like Cage. There are 14 days left for you to find yours."
