[Dixielandjazz] Space as feeling in music

[Bill Gunter]

Hi listmates,

Charles Suhor writes (regarding "silence" and "music"):

>In a sense, everything we hear is perceived against a backdrop of silence.

This is way of saying "silence is something" as opposed to "silence is 
nothing."

I could restate the issue by saying ". . . everything we hear is the absence 
of silence."

There is nothing mystical about silence - it's just the absence of noise.

Music, in any sense of the word, must have that element of noise. Without it 
there is no music. Such idiocies as 4'33" do not strike me as profound as 
much as they strike me as absurd and hence, at best, funny!

I used to think that 4'33" was deep and that Cage was promoting deep 
cerebral convulsions in the listeners grey matter.  Today I find the notion 
puerile and without merit.

Charles goes on to say:

>In the Buddhist tradition, attention to this spacious source is blissful, 
>and sense impressions of all kinds move through it like clouds drifting in 
>a clear sky. John Cage was saying something like this, I believe, when he 
>said we can experience everything as music . . .

When you say that "everything is music" then you are truly saying "nothing 
is music."

Music is "special" and if you try to aver that everything is "special" then 
"special" has no meaning.

There is the story about the Buddhist monk who, when he became 
"enlightened," found that all his perceptions of the world were false. When 
he realized the true nature of the universe birds sang special songs for him 
and all the woodland animals came to him and ate from his hand.

But finally one day he became "fully enlightened" and he discovered that 
trees were just trees and the birds no longer sang for him and the woodland 
animals simply ignored him.

Cage was trying to make music something that it isn't and, in the process, 
produced nothing. 4'33" is the ultimate expression of this folly.

Other than that, Cage was a genius.

Respectfully submitted,

Bill "Running for cover" Gunter
jazzboard at hotmail.com











Musicologist Bennett Reimer says,
>"when we approach the transcendent quality of experience, the breadth we 
>feel is more like silence than sound (even when musical), more like 
>quietude than action." In the Buddhist tradition, attention to this 
>spacious source is blissful, and sense impressions of all kinds move 
>through it like clouds drifting in a clear sky. John Cage was saying 
>something like this, I believe, when he said we can experience everything 
>as music, letting all sound play itself to our ears and into our open 
>consciousness. I don't see this as high-blown puff talk--I think it 
>describes the way most of us feel in moments of deep appreciation of 
>anything, and it's accessible on an everyday basis through cultivation of 
>awareness.
>
>Charlie Suhor
>
>
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