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Home , Construction (Cage), Credo in Us, Henry Flynt, HPSCHD, Imaginary Landscape, John Cage

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John Cage and Recording

Yasunao Tone ABSTRACT

There is general agree- ment that ’s attitude toward records and recording If you close your eyes, you lose the power of abstraction. “It’s really not useful at all,” Cage was ambiguous and not neces- answers with a sudden and surprising sarily coherent. However, if one —Michel Serres impatience, even anger....“It closely analyzes his work and merely destroys one’s need for real his evolution of the concept of . It substitutes artificial music the —that is, from his pieces How does one encounter John Cage? for real music, and it makes people for prepared to his use of It would be problematic to say that I encounter John Cage think that they’re engaging in a mu- the for in his music, because I do not encounter him, as F.J.J. Buy- sical activity when they’re actually to 4’33” to his prototype of not. And it has completely distorted at Black Mountain tendijk in his widely known text Phenomenology of the Encounter and turned upside down the function points out, in the way that I encounter a thing in a box. Was College in 1952—one finds a of music in anyone’s experience.” . . . critique of something that other it not Cage who forbade above all else the consideration of We didn’t pay any attention to Cage take as self-evident. music as an object? Even so, we can still encounter him even on the subject of recordings then, and Cage’s critique of recording though we are no longer able to see him. The idea of en- we certainly don’t 10 years later....It relates to the representation as is almost taken for granted by just countering John Cage reminds me of ’s remark re-presentation of music. The about everyone who uses recordings author aims in this article to “The best criticism of a painting is to put another painting that recordings, whether or not they discover/uncover Cage’s next to it.” I perhaps encounter Cage when I am composing are the experience of music, have critique of the of and reaching a point at which I am trying to get beyond his something very important to presence through his work and offer....And, remarkably, three years utterances. music. Cage himself once said that he would prefer to respond after his death, Cage himself has be- to another’s work by writing a new piece rather than by writ- come ...the most recorded of mod- ing a critique. In fact, he once created a piece, Not Wanting to ern composers. ...[1] Say Anything about Marcel, in the form of a visual poem instead Swed dismissed Cage’s antipathy to records as a musician’s of writing criticism of Duchamp. Nevertheless, I have chosen typical manner of thinking, disregarding the fact that re- writing. Needless to say, for Cage categories would not matter. markably few compositions are made specifically for the I have to admonish myself not to become Zarathustra’s ape by medium: mimicking Cage’s discourse, so that I do not become the exact opposite of Cage. Yet, is there anyone devoted to music who isn’t stopped just a lit- tle bit short by Cage’s remarks about recordings? In the televi- sion and computer age, when the dubious value of virtual experience is becoming increasingly clear, does anyone really be- CAGE AND RECORDS lieve that recordings replace music? [2] Cage’s antipathy towards recording is widely known; but it Swed continues and points out Cage’s contradictory atti- seems to me that there has never been an attempt to discuss tude towards recording: this phenomenon as derived from his musical ideas. People assume that Cage was against recordings as substitutes for live Indeed, Cage was involved in recording, in one way or other, all his life. ...He was always generous about allowing his live per- music, in the sense that recordings are copies, with the live formances to be recorded and broadcast. ...And most impor- as the originals. This assumption would perhaps tant of all, he used recordings. . . . Recordings, or at least the make him a vulgar media theorist, if not a reactionary. Cage, technology of them, were in Cage’s blood. ...[3] who admired Marshall McLuhan a great deal, would not agree In the last years of his life, Cage seemed to become more with this assumption. It is true that Cage was against record- open to the idea of recordings and was pleased to make record- ing as a substitute, but in a different sense. I will elaborate on ings. He had written a new piece that was composed for the this topic below. If one closely examines Cage’s antipathy to- CD medium, which his sudden death prevented him from lis- wards recording, one would find this seemingly contradictory tening to. Swed then notes the change in Cage toward record- attitude consistent with his ideas; however, many people have ing and concludes: not fully explored his antipathy toward recording. For instance, music critic Mark Swed’s article in the Did this mean that Cage ...had in the end lightened up some- 1995–1996 John Cage special issue of Schwann Opus attracted what about recordings? Well, Cage confessed that he had not, and for the best and most practical of reasons. ...Cage chose to my attention. In it Swed refers to remarks Cage made in a 1985 live without music for his mental well-being, just as he chose a British television documentary directed by Peter Greenaway:

“I don’t myself use records,” Cage says, “and I give the example Yasunao Tone (sound artist, theorist, artist), 307 West Broadway, , of someone who lives happily without records. But I notice that NY 10013, U.S.A. nobody pays any attention to me. Or maybe a few pay attention, This essay was written for a book commemorating John Cage, entitled Rencontrer/Encounter- but most people use records.” ...[O]ne interviewer innocently ing John Cage, edited by and Jean-Louis Houchard. Publication of the book asks the question likely to pop into most music lovers’ heads at has been suspended since 1997. Minor revisions were made for this publication. The text that point. Isn’t a recording at least useful for the purpose of hear- was translated into Japanese by Toshie Kakinuma and published in InterCommunication 35 (NTT Publishing division, Tokyo) (2001) pp. 116–125. ing music from concerts or performances you simply can’t get to?

© 2003 ISAST LEONARDO MUSIC JOURNAL, Vol. 13, pp. 11–15, 2003 11

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macrobiotic diet for his physical well- quency record. (1942) he ex- graphic images, from which the Chinese being [4]. plained as follows: “Interviewer—So the characters were derived by studying their When I read this article I empathized irony is also romantic, classical music ancient pictographic forms, which are with the irritation Cage expressed in this bursting out of the speakers, and that was closer to images than are their modern interview. For I myself have experienced [the] American idea of culture. Cage— forms. I scanned the images into the a similar situation, to which I will return And a , a cowboy solo and so computer and digitized them, convert- later. forth. . . . The phonograph is playing ing them to binary code (simple 0s and Tchaikovsky and other classical music 1s). I then obtained histograms from the and [the] radio played whatever they put binary code and had the computer read THE USE OF RECORDS AND on the air” [7], in addition to percussion. the histograms as sound waves; thus I ob- CREATION WITH RECORDS Cage also used other pre-recorded sound tained sound from the images. There- Cage’s thoughts on records are not sim- media up to his last years. For example, fore, I used visualized text (images) as the ply the negation of records. The fact that Sculpture Musicale (1989) is a piece for source—that is, the message—which he sometimes showed apparently incon- four tape recorders with recorded sound. after encoding was recorded on a CD. sistent attitudes towards records was not Now, I would like to report on my own Now, when playing the CD, what is re- a contradiction; likewise, his attitude to- experience using recordings with Cage ceived are not images as message, but wards records did not change. In fact, if as my audience. In March 1986, a year sound that is simply an excess. Accord- we closely examine his work, we find that after Cage’s interview for Greenaway’s ing to information theory the resultant his cooperation with the recording of his documentary, I gave a concert at the Ex- sound is nothing other than noise. As the music by other performers is in fact in ac- perimental Foundation in French word for (static) noise, parasite, cordance with his antipathy towards New York, during which I premiered a indicates, noise is parasitic on its host, records. For Cage, records existed only piece called Music for 2 CD Players. Cage that is, the message. But in this case there as a problem of preservation and distri- sat in the front row, and several minutes is no host, only a parasite on the CD. bution. He made this clear when he said, after the beginning of the performance Therefore, this CD is pure noise. Tech- “[I am] more interested in a mediocre he laughed loudly, over and over, until nically speaking, the sound of the CD is thing that is being made now than I am the end. I had no sooner finished the per- digital noise. in the performance of a great master- formance than he rushed up to me and What did I intend by this means of piece of the past. The business of the shook my hand. I think he approved of composition? I told the students that I great things from the past is a question my way of using the CD. The piece I had received an offer to publish a CD; of preservation and the use of things that composed was for prepared classical and however, none of my pieces were suitable have been preserved. I don’t quarrel with popular CDs on which I had stuck a num- for recording. Certain formal elements that activity” [5]. Accordingly, for him ber of bits of Scotch Tape on the surface of the pieces—spatial movement of records functioned as a sort of museum. where the laser beam hits the discs in sound, contrasting acoustic sound with Cage was fully aware of his future place order to change the digital signals. This amplified sound, and the use of visuals— in history as a who single- not only produced totally unexpected made the pieces simply unrecordable. So handedly pioneered the liberation of the sound by distorting information but also I had to create something totally devoid conception of music from tradition, and disrupted the CD player’s control func- of live performance, something that only he was not so naive as to believe that pre- tion so that the progression of the CDs the CD as a medium could produce. serving his work for the future was use- was unpredictable. Cage hated repeating In addition, I told the students that the less [6]. Furthermore, considering the the known; as he said, “I write in order to reason Cage did not like records was that notation of his indeterminate works, it is hear something I haven’t yet heard” [8]. the spatial element of a performance was quite reasonable to assume that Cage lost and the recorded sound was the en- needed to have multiple recordings of a gineers’ re-interpretation of the per- piece, lest only one example become RECORDS AS A SUBSTITUTE formers’ interpretation of the music. canonical. That is why his antipathy to- FOR LIVE PERFORMANCE However, the students thought I was just wards recording did not prevent him How are records perceived by the gen- being grumpy about the lack of accuracy from making himself available to anyone eral audience? I was invited to give a talk in recording. They presumed I was com- who wished to publish his records, which to the students of my friend Peter plaining about the sound engineers’ re- served not only the need for preservation Zummo, a composer. These students vision of the performers’ misplays and of his work, but also as his obligation to were mainly media majors who were in- their removal of noise. That is, they the future. In any event, I noticed that he terning for radio and TV stations, record- thought I was criticizing recording as me- was always pleased to see recording pub- ing companies and the film industry. The chanical reproduction in general be- lishers. I remember that once, after a topic was my CD Musica Iconologos [9]. cause it is unfaithful to the original. Such young publisher had just left his studio, I explained to the students that the an idea is not uncommon; their notion Cage told me that he did not like records, piece had not existed before the CD it- of recording is, in short, that it is merely but people liked to publish his records. self was mastered, because I had designed a means of communication. This notion I then noticed that he himself did not the piece specifically for the medium. In implies that if a recording is copied ex- possess any sound equipment. other words, the entire production pro- actly, then it is a perfect substitute for live As Swed points out, Cage did not ob- cess of the CD was a seamless part of my performance. ject to the creation of music using records. composition. The result was noise in all Regardless of Cage’s critical view to- He composed a piece for the use of senses of the word. I explained the pro- wards records, I believe he also thought records as instruments as early as 1939. cess: The original source material of the of recordings in the positive sense as ma- The piece, No. 1, was piece was a poetic text from ancient terial for study. He mentioned that in composed for , piano and two China. I converted the text’s Chinese India, notation is considered as docu- variable-speed turntables with a fre- characters into appropriate photo- mentation for scholars and not for the

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creation of music; so he probably tablished between his notation and one derived from Cage’s determination that thought the same of recording. Still, it is performance of a piece. Such is the re- “the opposite and necessary coexistent important to question Cage’s records as lationship between a live performance of sound is .” If Cage had a better his music. I would like to discuss here in and its recording. Now, it should be un- idea, such as the use of the I Ching, then concrete terms how recording is disad- derstood that the nature of recording— he would not have used this rhythmic vantageous to one’s understanding of its representative (in place of) function structure. That was the reason he gave it Cage’s work. and the idea that it is a repetition of the up after he wrote Music of Changes. identical—and Cage’s music are incom- I think the was an im- patible. Indeed, this is what Cage meant portant breakthrough due to its role in ECORDS AND IGNS R S , when he said that a recording of an in- the development of indeterminate nota- REPRESENTATIONS AS determinate work has “no more value tions and event music. Following the first SUBSTITUTES than a postcard” [12]. piece, Bacchanale (1938), Cage wrote 15 Recording is a process of registering (a This point becomes obvious when one prepared piano pieces. In 1951, after technique of inscribing) vibration of the compares a recording of 4'33" and its composing the last of these pieces, he air on a disk or a tape and making the re- performance. I am aware of four record- wrote Music of Changes, an epoch-making sult multipliable; then, by approximate ings of this piece, but none of them can piano piece that utilized the I Ching. The reversal of the process producing stable be considered artistically “correct”; in following year, Music of Changes was suc- sound. The idea of recording presup- other words, they are of “no more value ceeded by even more revolutionary poses that each reproduction of the orig- than a postcard.” To produce a record- pieces, 4'33" and at Black inal is identical, no matter how many ing of a silent piece without destroying Mountain College. By this time Cage had copies are made and how many times the concept, one must create some other abandoned rhythmic structure because they are listened to. At first glance, this piece of music [13]. he came to see its critical element, tem- appears to be a quite objective, physical Recording as representation, as sub- poral measurement, as unnatural. process. However, this is not the case if stitute (in place of), is recording as a sign. If we closely examine the prepared we examine the phenomenon closely. A In the beginning of the chapter “Essen- piano, which threw music into a totally recording is a cultural object that cannot tial Distinction” in Logical Investigations, new perspective, we will find it far from be separated from its historical meaning Husserl writes, “Every sign is a sign for being cannibalization—that is, merely a and the date of its origin. Throughout something.” A sign is about something (für reform. It was a turning point that sub- the entire process of recording—from etwas); it is “in place of” [14]. As I men- jected the entire traditional musical sys- beginning to end, from recording to lis- tioned above, a recording is assumed to tem to deconstruction. tening—we can find traces of the West- be a representation of live performance As is widely known, the prepared ern history of music [10]. and a repetition of the identical; so, in piano consists of the placement of many Most of Cage’s pieces would suffer Husserlian terms, recording is a sign in objects—screws and bolts in various from the practice of recording if the lis- general. What Cage was opposed to was sizes, wood, rubber, etc.—between the tener takes for granted that the records recording as sign; however, it is not strings of a piano at certain distances are simply repetitive and are always iden- recording per se but Cage’s music of in- from the damper, producing a range of tical to the original. His work, in partic- determinacy that raised questions about unprecedented timbers and sonorities. ular, that written for indeterminacy, signs. It is only natural that he introduced It was reported that the actual tone pro- would be marred by such a way of listen- the problem of signs, for it was he who duced by a prepared piano playing “mid- ing. For Cage, a recording of a certain developed graphic that were dle B” on the keyboard sounded a pitch piece represents just one fixed version written as a logical extension of the pre- three octaves higher with unknown out of many different possible versions of pared piano. sonority. Characteristics of the original the piece. Even the word “version” would In any event, the questions posited by note are transformed, and a single key- be misleading. The respective versions Cage on the topic of recording, through stroke produces multiple sounds; so we (recordings) of Beethoven’s Symphony indeterminate and graphic notations and find here a loss of the univocal relation No. 5 by Furtwängler and by Karajan are prepared piano, are uniquely of the between the tone/timbre expected from the same to a certain degree, but David 1960s. (Cage started working with pre- the keyboard and the sound actually pro- Tudor’s version (or Cage’s own, for that pared piano in the late 1930s.) duced. matter) of Cartridge Music varied consid- Accordingly, Cage’s “invention” of the erably with each performance. Cage’s no- prepared piano, which at first glance ap- tations are written in such a way that the PREPARED PIANO AND pears to be a mere technical innovation, performers play the composition differ- REPRESENTATION caused a rupture between notes (the con- ently each time. Sometimes, as is often The qualitative change brought about by cept of pitches on sheet music) and ac- the case for many modern composers, the prepared piano has often been over- tual auditory images (the pitches’ the release of one recording of a given looked. , for instance, representation), which is also a rupture piece is common. In such cases the au- calls it cannibalization (machines being between signifier (note) and signified dience may receive the mistaken im- dismantled to allow their parts to be used (played pitch). Thus, a written note as pression that the piece always sounded in other machines), and he describes it, writing (écriture) and as the concept of a this way. Therefore, even if a specific only in passing, in one short paragraph note—signified (signifié)—by this chain recording of a performance of a score in his . Nyman consid- of events, called the entire tonal system was the best among many others, this ers Cage’s rhythmic structure (the pro- into question. recording cannot represent all other per- portionally temporal distribution of Saussure wrote, “Language (langue) formances. This means that in the case sound and silence) most important in the and writing (écriture) are two distinct sys- of Cage’s music, representation as sub- revolution against traditional Western tems of signs; the second exists for the stitution (in place of) [11] cannot be es- music [15]. But this structure is simply sole purpose of representing the first”

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[16]. This is surely true when a pianist ERASURE OF NOISE to objective closeness” [20]. Likewise, a plays traditional sheet music, which pre- AND RE-PRESENTATION loss of spatiality occurs in the record supposes that a written note, as writing For Cage, just as the signs of an indeter- when used to reproduce sound; and (écriture), is reduced to a sound, one step minate score and a prepared piano key- here, too, the reproduction causes the at a time, until the entire chain of signi- board could not be indicated by a piece loss of the aura. Whereas Adorno found fiers is reduced to the ideality of music. of sheet music, records need not be a it possible to argue for the objectification Such a representationistic system cannot neutral reproducing device. Neverthe- of sound as it is reproduced on LP be applied to the prepared piano. less, many of us want to avoid noise in the records—similar to the experience of an Cage’s prepared piano appeared to be situations of recording and listening. Era- immersion in books (in his own anal- a problem of signs, and this was a 1960s sure of noise in reproduction is similar ogy)—Benjamin pointed out, according problem par excellence. A strong bond to the reduction of writing (écriture) to to Bolz and van Reijen, that the closeness between the tonal system and the piano meanings, as we just noted in the last sec- that photography brings us to a subject keyboard was broken; and ultimately, tion. The reason why the reduction of a means the end of criticism, “for criticism Cage’s sheet music for prepared piano sound-reproducing system to a neutral requires a sense of perspective and the transformed itself into indications for ac- means is necessary is that the existence proper distance.” In the face of cinematic tion. In other words, although a note on of noise always reminds us that we are lis- reality, “The standpoint of critics’ taking the sheet music indicated a certain pitch, tening through a reproductive device and the enjoyment of the impartially in- the sound played was a far cry from a rep- that is external to the music. What is dependent observer no longer existed. resentation of the note, which meant that marred by the noise is the immediacy And tactility and closeness replace a good in reality it did not require the pianist to of the music being played and the lis- eye for distances and critical awareness” play a sound but to act by depressing a tener’s illusory proximity to the original [21]. “Cinema for Benjamin was not an certain key on the keyboard. As a result, music. We then come to see reproduc- object for the criticism by the bourgeois sound is merely ex post facto, with the tion as repetition of the presence, or but a realistic tool for a practice” [22]. performance only a few steps away from re-presentation. To consider the record Benjamin’s media started from event music or a happening [17]. as such is a pretty ordinary view; and at the mechanical reproduction of the Cage once talked about “Giving up least it appeals to common sense. But for image and the liberation of writing, the control so that sounds can be sounds Cage the record as performing device printed text of the book. Contrary to (they are not men: they are sounds)” (creative use) is one thing, and the Benjamin, Adorno’s théorique “immersion [18]. Simply, he intended to liberate record as a device for representation in the text,” the printed book, almost music from the tonal system because he (re-presentation) is another—he ob- seemed to treat the book as “a totality of was against the humanization of sound jected to the latter. I find it hard to un- transcendental signified” (Derrida). Ac- due to the “representationistic con- derstand why many in the musical cordingly, his vision of the LP could not sciousness.” Cage’s graphic notations not profession do not question recording as escape representation; so he shut his only disrupt the univocal relation be- an alternative to live performance. eyes, and his devotion focused only on tween written notes and pitches but Far from doing so, Theodor Adorno the auditory sense, thus giving up all also are more open to sound itself, declared: other senses, which only ensured the il- that is, noise. His suggestion to students lusion of the presence of sound. This is who wished to write an indeterminate Shorn of phony hoopla, the LP simulta- nothing other than re-presentation. score was to observe the imperfections of neously free[s] itself from the capri- Such an audience perfectly fit the work a sheet of white paper. Not only should ciousness of a fake opera festival. It allows of the European avant-garde composers, for the optimal presentation of music, the signs written on the paper be taken enabling it to recapture some of the Boulez and Stockhausen, to name two, into account, so should the stains or force and intensity that had been worn from whom Cage and the experimental smudges on the paper, which are also threadbare in the opera house. Objecti- composers differentiated themselves. noise. fication, that is, a concentration on music “Boulez emphasized the need to purge as the true object of opera, may be linked Now, is it possible for a record (not to a perception that is comparable to his music of any remnants of a tradition only as reception but as an instrument) reading, to the immersion in a text [19]. he considered dead” [23]; however, the to be analogous to that of the prepared avant-garde composers represented by piano and indeterminate notation? That He also mentioned that “it is obvious him and his European colleagues con- depends on the audience. It is impossi- that Mozart’s opera cannot be per- sidered concert halls and recording stu- ble if the audience uses records in the formed in oratorio fashion without an dios as exterior to music. For them, way that the manufacturer and recording unintentionally comic effect.” exclusion of the unintentional through companies persuade them to, which pre- Therefore, it is clear that Adorno strict of music, exclusion of supposes an exact reproduction of found that the LP would make it possible chances except those intended through sounds that a live performance pro- for one to be absorbed in the auditory the exactness of performances, exclusion duced. But as we have seen, sound re- sense, in listening, without any spatial of anything that might impede pure mu- produced by playing a record cannot be perception—similar to théorique immer- sical experience in concert halls (au- reduced to the mere sound that was sion in the text. This is an inversion of tonomous space) and lastly, exclusion of recorded on it. We already use records as Walter Benjamin. Benjamin saw photog- noise from music are essential necessi- anything but representations of original raphy as “the image-writing and hiero- ties. Their intention was to create music performances, because we are still able glyphs that cast their spell over the as a purely autonomous object; and, in to identify a record we are listening to modern age.” His insightful study of me- fact, their music is ensured by the insti- even when the volume is turned up ex- chanical reproduction argues that, by use tutional framework mentioned above. tremely loud and the scratch noises are of the camera, “distance of the perspec- They cannot endure the invasion of mu- numerous. tivistic relationship to the world gives way sical space and time by real space and

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time, which are external to music. Cage’s metaphysics of representation. Cage, who tion of the title and credits, with an instruction: “Do attitude, which emphasized the continu- was interested in Asian philosophy as not store with protective package.” The record with- out package is always subject to being scratched and ity between the environment and his early as shortly after World War II, was collecting and attracting dust; so, whenever the work, was in remarkable contrast with critical of Western metaphysics; this crit- record is played it adds to itself new noises. It is made almost like a recorded version of 4'33". I can add one that of the European avant-garde. Cage icality had grown in the process of his more example, if not limited the category of music: was also opposed to Schaeffer, who in- artistic development, as we have seen Zen for Film (1963) by . The film pro- corporated noise into the tonal system, through examining his work. jects an empty loop on a screen lasting for hours; new scratches and dust are always added; the screen never because Cage thought this was no better shows the same images as a result of its accumulation than excluding noise; both practices cre- of subtle figures. The concept of 4'33" is the accep- ate a boundary between music and non- TOWARDS ACTIVE LISTENING tance of things exterior to traditional Western music, such as ambient noise and incidents from the per- music. John Cage left us a voluminous body of formance situation. Let us return to records and noise work, including many records. We—I 14. Edmund Husserl, Logische Untersuchungen, Vol. 2, again. Reproduction devices are not ex- mean each of us—now have to decide Tsuneo Hosoya, . (Tokyo: Misuzu Shoten, 1970) terior to music; furthermore, environ- how to handle his records. One of the p. 33. mental sound can be part of music. It is characteristics of records, multiplicity, al- 15. Michael Nyman, Experimental Music (London: Stu- a fact that Cage did not make an envi- lows one to choose countless ways of lis- dio Vista, 1974) pp. 27–28. ronmentally inclusive record, such as a tening—or, in Cage’s term, of using 16. Ferdinand de Saussure, Course in General Lin- Marclay-Paik–type record [24]. Even records—as praxis (as opposed to théorique guistics, Wade Buskin, trans. (New York: McGraw Hill, though Cage’s live performances, such listening). Use these records as you wish. 1966) p. 23. as 4'33" and his realization of Vexation, You can destroy them or you may play dif- 17. I made basically the same argument about the prepared piano quite a long time ago; see Yasunao pointed in that direction, he never ferent records simultaneously; it’s up to Tone, “On John Cage,” Monthly SD (August 1969), reached a fully environmental record you. At least you should think twice be- included in the collection of essays Gendai geijutsu no [25]. Therefore, people continue to mis- fore you start listening to Cage. He did Iso (Tokyo: Tabata Shoten, 1970) pp. 92–110. understand Cage’s antipathy toward the not instruct us about how to do it. Now 18. Cage [12], “History of Experimental Music in the record as merely a reaction to the di- it is your turn. Remember Duchamp’s ,” p. 72. chotomy between live music and its copy, saying, “Use a Rembrandt as an ironing 19. Theodor Adorno, “Opera and the Long-Playing with live music being more important. board.” Record,” Thomas Y. Levin, trans., October 55 (1990) pp. 62–66. Both live performance and recorded per- formance are re-presentation—as Der- References and Notes 20. Norbert Bolz and Willem van Reijen, Walter Ben- jamin, Laimdota Mazzarings, trans. (Atlantic High- rida put it in Speech and Phenomena, “The 1. Mark Swed, “The Cage Records,” Schwann Opus lands, Humanity Press, 1996) p. 72. presence of the present is derived from (Winter 1995–1996) p. 8A. The documentary film 21. Bolz and van Reijen [20] p. 75. repetition not the reverse” [26]. Jazz, that Swed refers to is Peter Greenaway, director, 4 which is so proud of being an art of the American Composers: John Cage (1985). 22. Bolz and van Reijen [20] p. 71. present, is no exception. Cage was against 2. Swed [1] p. 8A. 23. Nyman [15] p. 51. jazz because many im- 3. Swed [1] p. 8A–11A. 24. See [13]. provisational performers in succession 4. Swed [1] p. 21A. 25. Cage actually tried to make such a record: His tend to play a tune in response to a pre- HPSCHD with , Nonesuch LP H-71224 5. Richard Kostelanetz, ed., Conversing with Cage (New vious performer. If the previous per- (1969). Unfortunately, the fact that he did not pos- York: Limelight Editions, 1988) p. 207. former determines the next performer’s sess audio equipment prevented him from succeed- ing. His instructions are merely perfunctory tune, then the present performer is al- 6. See Kostelanetz [5] p. 67: “Rauschenberg’s white painting I referred to earlier: when I saw those, I said, applications of his idea of indeterminacy to the or- ready a part of the past. This is nothing ‘I must: otherwise I’ lagging, otherwise music is dinary use of phonographic functions. He never but re-presentation of the past, which ap- lagging.’” made such an attempt again. pears in the presence of the present 7. Kostelanetz [5] p. 63. 26. Jacques Derrida, Speech and Phenomena (Evanston, sound. IL: Northwestern Univ. Press, 1973) p. 52. 8. Kostelanetz [5] p. 63. In the 1960s many artists besides Cage, 27. John Cage and Daniel Charles, For the Birds (Lon- such as LaMonte Young, Andy Warhol 9. Yasunao Tone, Musica Iconologos, don: Marion Boyars, 1981) p. 80. LCD3041 (1993). and Daniel Buren, were concerned with repetition. Cage, in particular, was am- 10. See Friedrich Kittler, Gramophone, Film, Typewriter (Berlin: Brinkmann & Bose, 1986), in particular, Manuscript received 16 October 2002. biguous about repetition, as in his atti- pp. 2–19 (“Introduction”) and pp. 21–114 (“Gramo- tude toward records. First, he was against phone”). Yasunao Tone, a founding member of repetition of the past that appears as the 11. The proper word for representation in this sense and Group Ongaku, was born in Tokyo in present; but he accepted repetition would be “appresentation.” On the Husserlian usage 1935 and has lived in New York since 1972. of present, represent and representation that follows, refer He is a sound artist, theorist and performance under the condition that “[E]ach repe- to paragraph 50 in Edmund Husserl, Cartesian Med- tition must authorize an entirely new ex- itations, Dorian Cain, trans. (Den Haag, the Nether- artist, whose recent activities include group ex- perience” [27]. Thus, he led people in lands: Martinus Nijhoff, 1950). hibitions—Bitstream at the Whitney in New York; Yokohama Triennale 2001 in Japan; I performances of Vexation, and he appre- 12. John Cage, “Composition as Process,” in Silence (New Haven, CT: Wesleyan Univ. Press, 1961) p. 39. Moderni in the Casselo Museum in Turin— ciated Young’s piano piece for repetition, and music festivals—All Tomorrow’s Parties, such as 566 for (c. 1961). Rep- 13. ’s Record without Cover (1985) London; Sonic Light, Amsterdam, 2003; and etition itself becomes a critique of rep- exemplifies this type of record. One side of the record contains Marclay’s multiple-turntable per- Spectacle Vivante at the Centre Pompidou, resentation, as Daniel Buren’s repetitive formance, which includes extremely long . Paris, 2002. Tone was a recipient of the Ars stripe has been a plain criticism of the The other side serves as a label, bearing an inscrip- Electronica Golden Nica prize in 2002.

Tone, John Cage and Recording 15

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