The Selected Letters of John Cage. John Cage

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СКАЧАТЬ and receive letters that had been forwarded from France to Italy and different islands in the Mediterranean and different countries in Northern Africa.

      I have been traveling with a chap I found in Capri.¹ He comes from Pittsburgh and from Harvard College and a number of other places. He writes poetry which he refuses to have printed. And he likes to visit Europe and Africa in the same manner that I do. That is: We avoid with care the carefully swept tourist roads and we crawl into the natural, average places of the countries. I am interested especially in the people of the cities, all the people. Don is interested most in the country, the hills, lakes, etc. He feels at home at present on a sand dune, riding a camel. I am perfectly happy in a cafe watching the Arabs play dominoes and drink coffee. Or in a post office watching the Arabs send letters or receive money or find witnesses who will identify them if they don’t know how to sign their own names. Vesuvious I saw from a distance. I found Etna far more beautiful, covered with clouds and snow, and not with funiculares sliding up and down it. The best part of Naples was its fish market, which was positively thrilling. The fish were kept brilliant and striking by having water dashed on them every now and then, as though they were clothes which were being dampened before being ironed. And there were all manner of fishes. There were even baby octopuses, which people would come and inspect and approve and buy. I didn’t buy any fish. All of Naples is dirty and happy. People working sing. People sleeping in the sun in December. Across to Capri. It takes an hour and a half on the boat that goes twice a day. Over on Capri there are flowers and bells and paths in the sunlight and walks down to the sand and little boats that you go paddling in, but if you go in these little “sandalinos” you have to wear only short bathing pants, because the “sandolino” is liable to turn over and land you completely in the bay of Naples, or, at any rate, by the mere act of paddling, water will get into the boat. You can go for an hour or two, however, before you sink.

      It was very kind of you to send me the money, and kinder of you to write the letters to me. I am always more than happy to hear from you. Please pardon my using my typewriter. But I have such trouble getting it through customs and such things that I feel the necessity to make use of it. I have wanted to send gifts from Europe at Christmas time, but the difficulties of taxes, etc. are apparently great. You will have to wait. My English as you see is getting horrid; I hope it remains slightly understandable. French is used more than English in Africa and I’m getting into bad habits of language.

      [handwritten note in left margin] Please write to Poste Restante Seville Spain and say “Hold” on the envelope.

      To Adolph Weiss²

       [Spring 1933?] | Carmel, California

      Dear Mr. Weiss,

      The enclosed compositions (Sonata for One Voice; Sonata for Two Voices; Composition for Three Voices) I beg you to consider merely as work which I have finished in the last half-year. I have, in writing them, erected arbitrary rules which have been strictly observed; so that, in defending them, I would be able to analyse all of the relationships which, in writing, I set up.

      Richard Buhlig,³ in Los Angeles, is very much interested in my work, and advised me to get in touch with Henry Cowell.⁴ When, recently, I saw Mr. Cowell, I told him of my intention to study with Dr. Schoenberg⁵ and asked him what method to pursue in order to accomplish that intention, by means of a scholarship. Mr. Cowell was rather vague, but definitely stated that you prepare students for Dr. Schoenberg, and advised me to send my compositions to you.

      I am writing, then, to ask if you will teach me. And, are there any possibilities of obtaining a scholarship, for I have no money?

      I am not ignorant that I will have to work hard; I add this because of the stories I have heard of the disappointments of “modernists” who have wanted to study with Schoenberg, hoping to find in him someone who would “sympathize.”

      Of course, I am very anxious to receive a reply from you, as soon as it would be convenient for you to send me one.

      References: Richard Buhlig

      102 S. Carondolet

      Los Angeles, California

      Henry Cowell

      Menlo Park, California

      P.S. I am twenty-one years old, and have worked for the last three years without a teacher.

      J.C.

      Box 1111, Carmel, Calif

      To Henry Cowell

       October 26, 1933 | 803 Griffith Park Blvd. Los Angeles

      Dear Mr. Cowell,

      I am writing in order to let you know that I have moved from the Santa Monica address which I gave you in connection with the Sonata for B-flat Clarinet Alone which I sent you for publication in New Music at Mr. Buhlig’s request. I am, of course, very interested in receiving your criticism.

      I am, at present, in extremely straight circumstances. I feel that you must be interested in the economic problems of the composer. If you know of any solution that would give me leisure to study and write, I would be very grateful if you would let me know of it.

      I am writing now a Sonata for Two Voices and have finished the first movement. In it I treat each sound as absolutely individual; two different A’s, for example, are absolutely different. It is a way of writing which I have approached with difficulty and yet inevitably. The last movement of the Clarinet Sonata which I sent you is obviously not written from this, my present point of departure. There I have, in writing a crab-canon, exchanged at will one A for another, desiring a change in flow-character.

      I have no piano now. But that doesn’t bother me much. What I want is time.

      To Pauline Schindler⁶

       11 December 1934 | Location not indicated

      Dearest Pauline:⁷

      I am terribly excited at the prospect of seeing you soon again and I want you to know I am extremely worried that you won’t or will get the flavor of N.Y. via me. I am in a rush of vortex!!! and you must pardon if this arrives to be only a note. Will travel by Santa Fe where Cowell + I are invited for Xmas Holiday. I forget the names of the people. How soon will I see you. You are probably in Ojai + I will (probably) have to stay in L.A. for a dutiful period which I will enjoy however. I will meet Schoenberg (whom you have already) by taking him presents from Mrs. Weiss who is not coming. How is Mark.⁸ Give him my best + Pat.⁹

      And Buhlig! I can’t wait. And everybody. There are two more important people in L.A. whom I think you don’t know. Joseph Achron, Jew + Wm. Grant Still,¹⁰ negro (composers). These distinctions are important now. Everything is important. Equalities. Distinctions wiping them out + emphasizing them.

      To Adolph Weiss

       [Winter, 1934?] | Location not indicated

      Dear Mr. Weiss:

      Please write to me and let me know what your plans are. This is an S.O.S. I count almost entirely on working with you.

      I am to be married soon. In May, as far as I know. Xenia is now in Alaska.¹¹ We will want to live near you and Mrs. Weiss.

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