Silence: Lectures and Writings

Silence: Lectures and Writings
by John Cage

List Price: ~~$24.95~~
Our Price: $15.61
You Save: $9.34 (37%)
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Buy Used: from $12.50 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions

Compare Prices for Silence: Lectures and Writings

Buy this book at online book store in your country
Canada | UK | Germany | France

Book Summary Information

Author: John Cage
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1961-06-15
ISBN: 0819560286
Number of pages: 276
Publisher: Wesleyan

Book Reviews of Silence: Lectures and Writings

Book Review: A Seminal 20th Century (And Beyond) Text (from Ahadada Books)
Summary: 5 Stars

I always think of John Cage as "Klatuu" in "The Day The Earth Stood Still," arriving in a turn-table-shaped rig to deliver the truth about the future of music to the masses. He parks his space ship, and his buddy Gort, on the mall and goes out to make a point. At first only the smartest man in the world could understand the equations he and Billy left on the office black board, but soon everyone would be standing stranded on the streets of Paris and Beijing wondering what the heck's up, and what's all this noise about? Of course, Klatuu gets killed and brought back to life (Cage wisely skipped that), and flies back to wherever he came from (as did Cage a few years back), but our man Cage beats Klatuu by light years, because this MAN FROM THE FUTURE left behind a collection of lectures and writings on the nature of sound, art, literature and BEING that still resonates. This is a fascinating tool box to dig through, even though some of the most interesting selections pre-date Klatuu. One innovation that Cage pioneers in this book is the use of random processes to give form to his lectures. This results in timed "silences" in the texts (very similar to performance scores) and poem-like structures of words. Cage also adds the 20th century's plastic-fantastic Americanized (and therefore ever more elastic) concept of ZEN to the tool box of avant-garde poly-practioners, which results in yet another permission given to innovate. In fact, when I encounter new music, writing, art, one of the basic things I seek is PERMISSION TO DO, and that's exactly what Cage is up to in these lectures. Not only is PERMISSION GIVEN, but he hands over many of the tools to begin. That's why this book is vital, seminal (pun intended) and necessary for every experimentalist in the arts and in life. Cage also has a great sense of humor in these writings. YOUTUBE includes a wonderful video of a guest appearance that Cage made on the old "What's My Line." Before the barely comprehending black & white stares of Gary Moore, Bess Myerson and the crew, Cage plays mix-masters, toasters, and other appliances, watching the clock, as always, and with a straight face bringing the odd beauty of new sound and his own Houdini-like showmanship into America's living rooms, just as he unpacks his ideas in the minds of any attentive reader of this book to this day. As classic as a 1960 limited edition T-Bird guaranteed to bring wows if driven into the 21st century and on and on into the future of human thought.

Write your own review

More Silence: Lectures and Writings reviews:
1 2

Summary of Silence: Lectures and Writings

John Cage is the outstanding composer of avant-garde music today. The Saturday Review said of him: "Cage possesses one of the rarest qualities of the true creator- that of an original mind- and whether that originality pleases, irritates, amuses or outrages is irrelevant." "He refuses to sermonize or pontificate. What John Cage offers is more refreshing, more spirited, much more fun-a kind of carefree skinny-dipping in the infinite. It's what's happening now." -The American Record Guide

"There is no such thing as an empty space or an empty time. There is always something to see, something to hear. In fact, try as we may to make a silence, we cannot. Sounds occur whether intended or not; the psychological turning in direction of those not intended seems at first to be a giving up of everything that belongs to humanity. But one must see that humanity and nature, not separate, are in this world together, that nothing was lost when everything was given away."

Music Books

Book Subjects

Most talked about in Music Books

Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain
by Oliver Sacks
Knopf Publishing Group; Published: 2008; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.13

Listen
by Joseph Kerman, Gary Tomlinson
Bedford/St. Martin's; Published: 2007-02-21; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $23.00

The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century
by Alex Ross
Picador; Published: 2008-10-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.33
Price in other shops: ~~$19.00~~

Forever Young: Photographs of Bob Dylan Image

Forever Young: Photographs of Bob Dylan
by Douglas R. Gilbert, Dave Marsh
Da Capo Press; Published: 2006-10-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.55
Price in other shops: ~~$18.95~~

Heroes And Villains: The True Story Of The Beach Boys
by Steven Gaines
Da Capo Press; Published: 1995-08-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.15
Price in other shops: ~~$17.95~~

Handbook for Sound Engineers, Third Edition
by Glen Ballou
Focal Press; Published: 2002-01-21; Hardcover; Book
Price in other shops: ~~$125.95~~

Jazz Anecdotes
by Bill Crow
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 1990-05-17; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $24.18

Lovesick Blues: The Life of Hank Williams
by Paul Hemphill
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2006-08-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.96
Price in other shops: ~~$16.00~~

How to Train Singers/ Book and Tape
by Larra Browning Henderson
Parker; Published: 1991-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $29.95
Price in other shops: ~~$44.95~~

I, Tina: My Life Story (icon!t)
by Tina Turner, Kurt Loder
It Books; Published: 2010-06-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.05
Price in other shops: ~~$13.99~~

Similar Books and other products

M: Writings '67-'72
by John Cage
Wesleyan; Published: 1973-03-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.73
Price in other shops: ~~$19.95~~

Imaginations: Kora in Hell / Spring and All / The Descent of Winter / The Great American Novel / A Novelette & Other Prose (A New Directions paperbook)
by William Carlos Williams
New Directions; Published: 1971-01-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.99
Price in other shops: ~~$18.95~~

Writings on Music, 1965-2000
by Steve Reich
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2004-10-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.39
Price in other shops: ~~$25.00~~

Selected Writings of Gertrude Stein
by Gertrude Stein
Vintage; Published: 1990-03-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.81
Price in other shops: ~~$21.00~~

The Writings Of Marcel Duchamp (Da Capo Paperback)
by Marcel Duchamp, Michel Sanouillet, Elmer Peterson
Da Capo Press; Published: 1989-03-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.78
Price in other shops: ~~$17.00~~

A Year from Monday: New Lectures and Writings
by John Cage
Wesleyan; Published: 1967-05-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.27
Price in other shops: ~~$18.95~~

Composition In Retrospect
by John Cage
Exact Change; Published: 2008-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.73
Price in other shops: ~~$15.95~~

Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music
by Christoph Cox, Daniel Warner
Continuum; Published: 2004-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $24.40
Price in other shops: ~~$34.95~~