The Selected Letters of John Cage. John Cage

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СКАЧАТЬ New York

      [This letter is intentionally cut in various places, and it is also typewritten on the page both horizontally and vertically, as indicated below.]

      [horizontal] today is beautiful and i am dreaming of you and enigma and how we are together today: your words in my ears making [me] limp and taut by turns with delight. oh, i am sure we could use each other today.

      i like to believe that you are writing my music now: god knows i’m not doing it, because it simply seems to happen. the prestissimo is incredible the way you are and is perhaps a description and song about you.

      banalities: blue check arrived and dv et Helmsley got theirs; i am afflicted with bills of all description, but do not seem to be able to be sensible about money. passed by clyde’s yesterday with their socks; they look beautiful. had, for a change, a pleasant time with Schuyler;¹¹⁴ he informs me that Oliver¹¹⁵ who called the other day and wanted to know whether you could hold a tune and what kind of voice you had, with Robbins,¹¹⁶ has you in mind for the lead of their dance-musical; it doesn’t mean you have to sing like galli-curci,¹¹⁷ but like American sailor[s] sing (and see stripes au meme temps?)

      there is apparently a part in the book where you would go through a tunnel of love and everyone thinks you would do it very well: so do i, please go through mine, taking your time, if you will.

      also schuyler had evening with virgil and v.t. now says i am ultra-genius, having seen some of 2 piano work, and that i am on a par with picasso, schoenberg, stravinsky, satie, matisse, cezanne, van gogh etc. ad nauseum: schuyler now thinks virgil had good reasons for not reviewing other concerts, will blare next one to skies, that his review of it is really already written, that he has been making careful decisions about what to say etc. i don’t like being great. it’s not good for my relation with calliope, who by the way, is not female, and looks exactly like you.

      pardon the intrusion: but when in september will you be back? i would like to measure my breath in relation to the air between us.

      [vertical] in one letter i said absurd things about inexpressivity; obviously wrong, but what i meant was that high expressivity often comes about through no attempt to make it or to express anything. had dinner one night with denby;¹¹⁸ i think he’s a sad little man who’s frightened of something. read his poetry which has some good qualities, but is by no means off this earth. i keep reading marvelous myths in joe’s book, but joe, too, is not really fine fine writer. of course, this is first draft i have and he will probably improve it. would you like me to send copy of finnegan book which is out now or would you rather save that for home-reading?¹¹⁹

      need you deliciously.

      gas bill came but is nothing; do not worry about it.

      prestissimo will be complex at first, then simple then complex and then faster yet to end entire piece which should be finished in two weeks, because have more things to write; i am so happy with this music that i shall be sad when it is all written. each sound has gotten to be friendly and something i know and have pleasure with; they are so well trained, too.

      send me some little twig or a hair from near enigma or a piece of grass you touched and sunbathed with, mon prince.

      To Merce Cunningham

       [Undated, postmarked Aug. 17, 1944] | 12 E. 17th St., New York

      Monsieur:

      Curious problem I have with words (I was not born an Irishman as you): tonight I wd. love to write an essay about music—it seems to me I know some things tonight—but good God! For hours with pencil in hand + only one stupid sentence. Who tied my tongue + stopped the spirit for words?

      Maybe I can tell you what vision I have: rhythm is like the air or water or the ether that the planets move in,—it is in fact like space, and the whole problem in writing notes or making movements, etc., is to not destroy it. It has not the slightest thing to do with anything that is put into it: an accent or a metre or what else; it only begs to be free to be.

      Does that mean anything?

      The other thing I have idea about is tones (pitches): they least kill the spirit when they arrange themselves for the most part in scales or scale-like structures. So used they evoke + are magic. If jumps in the scale are used, one must soon reestablish scale or magic is gone, + petty sentiment rules. Proofs by way of example from graved-past. Debussy, Schoenberg, Bach, Mozart, Palestrina, Hindus. I will have to talk about this because I can’t sitting alone see all the angles.

      I am resting from composing by doing copying (of which have great deal to do); still have 7 minutes to write. I bought a beautiful copy of Kenyon Review (Summer issue) which has many articles about G. M. Hopkins¹²⁰ in it and a beautiful article about economics + Adams’ Law of Civilization + Decay.¹²¹

      Great lightning + thunder + rain tried to remove horror-heat but failed. When are we going to be together?

      The Nameless One

      To Mrs. Rue Shaw

       [Undated, ca. Feb. 22, 1945] | Location not indicated

      I am sending Virgil’s review.¹²² The concert is very beautiful and I hope that it can be done at the Arts Club. Five Steinway grands (Style M or L) are required, and I think it would be exciting to have them down the center of the room,—with the audience seated as at prize fights. Phone me or write if you need more documentation. It is a kind of concert which is very exciting and although we had a small audience here, Virgil says it had to be that way because large numbers are not present at really new things.

      Let me know as soon as you can if there’s any chance and what money details would be like.

      Will be in New Yorker Talk of the Town this week.¹²³

      To Ruth Page¹²⁴

       May 26, 1945 | 12 E. 17th St., New York

      After talking with Noguchi,¹²⁵ I decided that, if you still desire it, I will compose the music you requested.

      In this connection please send me what ideas you have at present in connection with it; it is a pity that I did not see you when you were here.

      I will be particularly interested in the large time divisions you plan, if any. My present intention is to compose for two pianos transformed with mutes; this will provide a larger and more flexible medium than percussion.

      My fee would be on the basis of $30.00 per performance minute; and the requirement for its payment would be: one-half of the total amount on signing of a contract and the other half after completion of the score and before its first performance. The payment of this fee would entitle you to sole performance rights for the period of a year from the time of the completion of the score, not including broadcasts or recordings or use in connection with films. For each performance following the first one, I would require a fee of $25.00. I understand from Noguchi that the ballet will be approximately 15 minutes long; my fee has been estimated with this length in mind.

      I would recommend that Arthur Gold and Robert Fitzdale,¹²⁶ duo-pianists familiar with my music, be engaged for the first performance.

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