|
<< -- 9 -- Jennifer I Paull 'SKY POETS PAINT THE SHELTERED CURVE TO FIND'
John Cage was intent on becoming a writer, but his pivots altered his course. Today, he is mostly thought of as a composer, a description I believe to be unrealistically limiting. He was a philosopher, writer, poet, artist, and sculptor in silence, molten, intangible, quicksilver swirls of sound and light, with more tangible elements when so inspired. His drawings around objects developed into graphic notation; the random factor, a basis to much of his philosophy.
'Look at the stars sometimes. They are only notes. They are music.' -- Pat Conroy (born 1945) American author.
For Cage, one discipline to another simply pivoted to 'time instead of space.'
David Nicholls (Department of Music, University of Southampton) recently put forward the opinion that Cage's particular background and extraordinary achievements should place him at the centre of our understanding of modern artistic culture, not exile him to its margins.
'A man does not show his greatness by being at one extremity, but rather by touching both at once.' -- Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) French philosopher and mathematician.
It is the proliferation of the pivots that will one day be recognised as a precious ingredient, just as it was during the Renaissance. Paul Bowles' proportion, given the dimension of time, will slot into its rightful perspective, as will that of John Cage and all multiartistis. John Calder rightly anticipates the general public's unawareness of diversity as a summit to be scaled in this epoch of the narrowest of specialisation being de rigueur.
'It is better to make a piece of music than to perform one, better to perform one than to listen to one, better to listen to one than to misuse it as a means of distraction, entertainment, or acquisition of "culture".' -- John Cage (1912-1992) 'Forerunners of Modern Music; At Random,' in Tiger's Eye (New York, March 1949; repr in Silence, 1961).
To paraphrase Charlie Parker; everyone who touches the Arts is weaving their whole life's experience into what they are doing; whichever disciplinary scaffolding they claim as their own, whichever scale they wear as their mantle. Unless one has experience of life and living, one can but regurgitate the words onto paper or the notes upon the stave; ooze the paint from tube to palette, gaze at the inert dance shoes lying on the taxidermist's workbench. One must try to touch the painting in a poem, hear the rhythm of a sculpture, draw the melodic line in dance or shatter the translation barrier with its silent sonic boom. Only then can one unite with Art's nuances, hues and perfumes to become one with The Whole.
'I cannot write in verse, for I am no poet. I cannot arrange the parts of
speech with such art as to produce effects of light and shade, for I am no
painter. Even by signs and gestures I cannot express my thoughts and
feelings, for I am no dancer. But I can do so by means of sounds, for I am a
musician.' -- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
The more pivot points one can find along the curve to awareness within any art form, the richer the joy, the deeper the satisfaction, the greater the love. To create, one must learn how to project, harness and savour, 'and not abuse, but rather advance(s) along the curve'.
I AM BEGINNING TO HEAR
A voice in this life I am living
Every day every night
Never before heard
Speaking in languages
Made of shifts in the direction of the wind
Seeds fallen from an apple
Feathers in the dust
There is a flight of arrows or is it light
Turning the way things turn
After the sun only at different speeds
Brilliant darkness as in the night when there is no moon
I must have known it once
As now
Moving easily as a hand
Among the fiery lights raining out of space
I know what is said but it is
Dark untranslatable
A flower suddenly folding up
And rushing away into its ancient parchment
from 'Collected Poems' -- Robert Mezey
| 