Literatura na Świecie nr 1-2/1996

Literatura na Świecie #294-295

by John Cage, Jerzy Kutnik, Marjorie Perloff

John Cage: Manifest, przeł. Andrzej Sosnowski
Nancy Perloff: Paryż przełomu wieków i jego kultura popularna,
przeł. Jakub Sławek
John Cage: W obronie Erika Satie, przeł. Dorota Janowska, Jerzy Kutnik
Jerzy Kutnik: Johna Cage'a Coś i Nic
John Cage: 45' dla prelegenta, przeł. Andrzej Sosnowski
John Cage: Rok od poniedziałku, przeł. Piotr Sommer
John Cage: O Robercie Rauschenbergu, artyście i jego dziele, przeł. Jerzy Jarniewicz
John Cage: 2 strony, 122 słowa o muzyce i tańcu, przeł. Andrzej Sosnowski
Joan Retallack: Poetyka kompleksowego realizmu, przeł. Ewa Borkowska, Tadeusz Sławek
John Cage: Przeludnienie i sztuka, przeł. Andrzej Sosnowski
Charles Junkerman: "nowe formy wspólnego życia": John Cage i jego Muzycyrk, przeł. Tadeusz Sławek
John Cage: Tematy i wariacje, przeł. Jerzy Jarniewicz
Marjorie Perloff: Muzyka przestrzeni werbalnej: Johna Cage'a "To co mówisz...", przeł. Marek Goździewski
John Cage: Wypowiedź autobiograficzna, przeł. Dorota Kozińska
Jerzy Kutnik: John Cage, kalendarium życia i twórczości
John Cage: Kuchnia makrobiotyczna, przeł. Dorota Janowska
Jerzy Kutnik: John Cage w Internecie
John Cage: Nieoznaczoność, przeł. Agnieszka Taborska
Piotr Sommer: Krótkie kawałki Cage'a
John Cage: Akwarele i grafiki [niepaginowane]
Ray Kass: John Cage: malarstwo e Mountain Lake Workshop, przeł. Marek Goździewski
Jerzy Jarniewicz: Kochanowski w Sztokholmie
Magda Heydel: Nowy poeta angielskiego renesansu?
Jarosław Anders: Czy warto tłumaczyć Treny dla Amerykanów?
Andrzej Szuba: Bukowski jest Bukowski jest Bukowski
Wacław Sadkowski: Polonica frankofońskie - czyli różne powroty do źródeł
Zygmunt Kubiak: O tłumaczeniu wierszy Kawafisa [polemiki]
Małgorzata Borowska: Odpowiedź Zygmuntowi Kubiakowi

396 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1996

About the author

John Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer, philosopher, poet, music theorist, artist, printmaker, and amateur mycologist and mushroom collector. A pioneer of chance music, electronic music and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde. Critics have lauded him as one of the most influential American composers of the 20th century. He was also instrumental in the development of modern dance, mostly through his association with choreographer Merce Cunningham, who was also Cage's romantic partner for most of their lives.

Cage is perhaps best known for his 1952 composition 4′33″, the three movements of which are performed without a single note being played. The content of the composition is meant to be perceived as the sounds of the environment that the listeners hear while it is performed, rather than merely as four minutes and thirty three seconds of silence, and the piece became one of the most controversial compositions of the 20th century. Another famous creation of Cage's is the prepared piano (a piano with its sound altered by placing various objects in the strings), for which he wrote numerous dance-related works and a few concert pieces, the best known of which is Sonatas and Interludes (1946–48).

His teachers included Henry Cowell (1933) and Arnold Schoenberg (1933–35), both known for their radical innovations in music and coincidentally their shared love of mushrooms, but Cage's major influences lay in various Eastern cultures. Through his studies of Indian philosophy and Zen Buddhism in the late 1940s, Cage came to the idea of chance-controlled music, which he started composing in 1951. The I Ching, an ancient Chinese classic text on changing events, became Cage's standard composition tool for the rest of his life. In a 1957 lecture, Experimental Music, he described music as "a purposeless play" which is "an affirmation of life – not an attempt to bring order out of chaos nor to suggest improvements in creation, but simply a way of waking up to the very life we're living".