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.  It caused a
sudden flame (I didn't mean it to flame there but the whole thing did
resemble a shot into an anthill).  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."

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.  I need your opinions about John Cage.  Thanks.

Juozas Rimas