John Cage in Conversation with Morton Feldman, Radio Happening 1 through 5
Item Type: Sound Recording
Event Type: Other Finds
Program Origin: C Amirkhanian
John Cage and Morton Feldman recorded four open-ended conversations at the studios of radio station WBAI in New York. These meetings spanned six months between July 1966 and January 1967, and were produced as five "Radio Happenings". Both men were at transitional points in their music. Cage had completed “Variations V” in 1965 and “Variations VI” and “Variations VII” in 1966, and would publish "A Year from Monday" in 1967. Most of Feldman's important work was yet to come. These conversations between two old friends, relaxed, smoking, and throwing out ideas, are full of laughter and long ponderous silences. They form an incredible historical record of their concerns and preoccupation with making music, art, society, and politics of the moment.
In 1993 these conversations were transcribed and published as "Radio Happenings I-V" by Edition MusikTexte in Cologne, Germany, with a German translation and a preface by Christian Wolff. However, the printed page loses so much that can only be experienced by hearing these two speaking together again - even those long, meaningful silences.
Thanks to the Estate of Morton Feldman and the John Cage Trust for permission to share this historic interview. All Rights Reserved.
DESCRIPTION OF PART 1
Musical Selections: On intrusions -- is it reality or culture? The role of the artist -- deep in thought. Is it possible to avoid the environment around us? Being constantly interrupted? Larry Rivers, Bob Rauschenberg, Franz Kline, Schoenberg, Stockhausen, Boulez, Black Mountain College. On boredom and Zen, Buckminster Fuller.
Subject: Fuller, R. Buckminster (Richard Buckminster), 1895-1983; Stockhausen, Karlheinz, 1928-; Schoenberg, Arnold, 1874-1951; Boulez, Pierre, 1925-; Kline, Franz, 1910-1962; Rauschenberg, Bob ; Rivers, Larry, 1925-; Black Mountain College (Black Mountain, N.C.); Zen Buddhism; Art, Modern; Avant-garde (Art); Silence in music; Music--Philosophy and aesthetics; Conversations; New music
People: Cage, John; Feldman, Morton, 1926-1987
Recording Date: 7/9/1966
First Broadcast Date: 10/18/1967
Length: 39:25
DESCRIPTION OF PART 2
Musical Selections: Governments, modern music, freedom from being known. Writing for large or small ensembles. Boulez and Stockhausen's reactions. Writing for Christian Wolff and electric guitar. de Kooning. Lukas Foss. Cage comments on Feldman's soft sounds. Having stamina to make an action. On working alone. Working "at home". Being asocial and the telephone. Edgard Varese. The question of death.
Subject: Fuller, R. Buckminster (Richard Buckminster), 1895-1983; Stockhausen, Karlheinz, 1928-; Boulez, Pierre, 1925-; De Kooning, Willem, 1904-1997; Foss, Lukas, 1922-; Varèse, Edgard, 1883-1965; Wolff, Christian, 1934-; Art, Modern; Avant-garde (Art); Music--Philosophy and aesthetics; Guitar; Death; Conversations; New music
People: Cage, John; Feldman, Morton, 1926-1987
First Broadcast Date: 10/24/1967
Length: 49:41
DESCRIPTION OF PART 3
Musical Selections: "There is so little talk these days." Talking in England. The ICA lectures. Kitaj. David Sylvester. English pompousness. Cardew. Compositions as "work-in-progress". Thinking about Mozart. Webern and other possibilities for new music. Differences between Boulez and Stockhausen piano pieces. Varese and process. Space, silence, notation, scales. Finding the vertical. Grandeur of Varese. Stockhausen's refusal. Looking into the future. Buckminster Fuller's ideas on ending war.
Subject: Fuller, R. Buckminster (Richard Buckminster), 1895-1983; Cardew, Conelius ; Varèse, Edgard, 1883-1965; Stockhausen, Karlheinz, 1928-; Boulez, Pierre, 1925-; Webern, Anton, 1883-1945; Art, Modern; Avant-garde (Art); Music--Philosophy and aesthetics; Conversations
People: Cage, John; Feldman, Morton, 1926-1987
Recording Date: 12/28/1967
First Broadcast Date: 10/25/1967
Length: 1:06:08
DESCRIPTION OF PART 4
Musical Selections: Design in a disposable world. How our sense of time has changed. "How do we spend our time?" Conversation as enjoyment. Impermanence and music. "Do you prefer the composition, or hearing the music?" Feldman working on "In Search of an Orchestration". Composers silent on Vietnam. Painters are not. Protests in Europe. Fuller's views and World Resources Inventory. Global Village.
Subject: Fuller, R. Buckminster (Richard Buckminster), 1895-1983; Art, Modern; Avant-garde (Art); Music--Philosophy and aesthetics; Vietnam war; Conversations; New music
People: Cage, John; Feldman, Morton, 1926-1987
Recording Date: 1/16/1967
First Broadcast Date: 10/25/1967
Length: 43:48
DESCRIPTION OF PART 5
Musical Selections: Varese or Webern? On Boulez. On an upcoming concert in Cincinnati. Problems, stories of performances. "Why do you continue to compose?" Creating new notation. Students making compositions. The way things are done nowadays. Things are "less narrow now". Children, and the Middle Ages. "If we apply ourselves to the social situation... as composition rather than criticism, we'll get somewhere!"
Subject: Fuller, R. Buckminster (Richard Buckminster), 1895-1983; Varèse, Edgard, 1883-1965; Boulez, Pierre, 1925-; Webern, Anton, 1883-1945; Art, Modern; Avant-garde (Art); Music--Philosophy and aesthetics; Conversations; New music
People: Cage, John; Feldman, Morton, 1926-1987
Recording Date: 1/16/1967
First Broadcast Date: 10/25/1967
Length: 54:38