2007-09-26

john cage talking to hans günter helms on music and politics in 1972.



john cage, pierre henry and karlheinz stockhausen probably were the most influential composers of modern classical avantgarde music on "rock" music (though the interrelation of erik satie, henry cowell, ligeti, lachenmann, kagel, schaffer, henze, holliger and many more of course should at least be mentioned and refered to); but john cage undoubtebly was the most warmhearted of them all.

during the production of the tv special birdcage (a programme in honour of his 60th birthday forthcoming on the 12th of september 1972) on the 7th of april john cage was talking to hans günter helms on music and politics. this conversation was recorded and released in 1975 on the now defunct german tape label s-press, then a wonderful and reliable source for experimental poetry and spoken word. unfortunately this tape is only one of two tapes i own (the other is "there is no other life", selected poems by gary snyder) and i hope someday someone might share some more.

quiet, please:
john cage talking to hans günter helms on music and politics in 1972
mp3 / 128 kbps / 66:33 / 100 mb

alternate download with in.solit.us




and a footnote celebrating the concept of chance operation: while i was ripping the tape to my computer's hard drive i was playing xeno tactic online. after cage and helms had finished i forgot to close the file and the soundcard switched to the noises of that game. i thought it was appropriate not to erase these sounds.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

what a wonderful coincidence - i mean the one with your soundcard switching to something else! and your decision not to erase it, is proof that you love cage's concept...

recently i heard in an interview, that john zorn is not a friend of chance, quite contrary - he really likes people who have a hard time taking decisions... (just a footnote).

cheers, lucky

ELASTIC ROCK said...

OK. TIME TO TURN THE CARDS...
I started a joke, but I found the naked truth. I started it all to test how much freedom the music bloggers think is right to have in their community. But I sadly found A WORLD OF HYPOCRITES.
I found:
1) bloggers that everyday steal music, cover arts, album credits and so on from the legal rights owners to post them in their blogs, that becomes crazy of rage if someone takes their (their?) links to do the same thing in another blog, and call leecher - intended as thief - who get the links. Thiefs that call thief who simply amplify their works, that they say is "sharing"! Hypocrites!
2) a blogger totally fuzzed that owns a blog that do not post anything but only links to other blogs that blacklist a site that do not post but only links! Hypocrite!
3) bloggers that say that they do their blogs to share their music that are jealous of what they share, and pretend to put rules regarding the use you must do of what they share! Hypocrites!
4) bloggers that show jelaousy and verbal and ideological violence towards who do not think like them, in a community born for the free exchange of music, experience and culture. Hypocrites!
I started a joke, and what's better than a naked girl (do you really thought I am really interested in such a poor thing like a nude in the modern world yet full of it?) to provoke a reaction and see what kind of people you are? Nobody resists to say something about, and to judge, eventually! And what's better than repost some link! The educations is soon revealed: ChrisGR menace me of a kick in the balls! And how much like sheeps to say: shame... and ready to condamn. For such poor things!
This is your world, a world you made full of hypocrisy, jealuosy and black lists. It' seems to me too similar to some reich we knew... Think about it, bloggers...
And so the game it's over, 'cos I'm yet tired of this all. But at last, I'd like to see if the BIg Chief Fuz will have the balls to publish this. But, sadly, I think no...

http://aroundtheblogs-aroundtheblogs.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

It seens the Mediafire server has some problems. When i download, i always got timeout message and server had no reaction. Could you re-upload to other site like Rapidshare? Thanks in advance!

rvd said...

thank you for the info about mediafire. though they seem to be up and working again i set up an alternate download and will do so for my other files as well asap.

Anonymous said...

No, Mediafire is not working, only the spam.

But meanwhile you can listen other radio interview just posted at avax: (Morton & Cage)

http://tinyurl.com/yvfnsv

j.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Thanks for uploading again! I downloaded from in.solit.us and Mediafire was still not working.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for making this interview available - a very interesting document!
For other interviews with composers and musicians see:
http://musicmavericks.publicradio.org/listening/

gd said...

THANK YOU!