Juozas Rimas:

>Lately I've written to John Cage mailing list.  I expressed my sincere
>opinion about "16 dances" saying they could be a record of an elephant in
>the orchestra pit.  I also added that this cd has discouraged me completely
>from the "modern" music and that John Cage, probably, is trying to disguise
>the lack of talent with charisma and boldness in experiments.

First, no one likes everything.  Second, not every modern or contemporary
composer sounds like Cage.  Third, boldness in experiment is probably a
talent.  Coming up with something completely new is a lot harder than it
looks.

>However, after a dozen of pro-cagian attacks, people settled down and
>eventually some of them admitted I might be right...  Someone remembered
>Cage's own words:
>
> "After I had been studying with him for two years, Schoenberg said,
> "In order to write music, you must have a feeling for harmony." I
> explained to him that I had no feeling for harmony.  He then said
> that I would always encounter an obstacle, that it would be as though
> I came to a wall through which I could not pass.  I said, "In that
> case I will devote my life to beating my head against that wall."

In the process, he managed to write music that played to his strengths,
rather than to his weaknesses and came up with new ways to compose.

>Now I'm hesitating if I should go to the library and listen to another
>piece by a composer that has to hammer his head into something to write
>music.

That, of course, is up to you.  If you're curious about the music written
from 1900 on, start listening to those composers.  If you could care less,
don't, but don't blame it on the composers.

Steve Schwartz