Revealing unpublished interviews with John Cage and some of his closest colleagues, including Virgil Thomson, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Pauline Oliveros, Merce Cunningham, and David Tudor.
John Cage, one of America's most renowned composers from the 1940s until his death in 1992, was also a much-admired writer and artist, and a uniquely attractive personality able to present his ideas engagingly wherever he went.
In CageTalk: Dialogues with and about John Cage, Peter Dickinson showcases a collection of vividly revealing and unpublished interviews given by Cage in the late 1980s for a BBC Radio 3 documentary. For this paperback edition, Dickinson presents a new preface noting developments in Cage criticism since the book's publication in 2006, updated comments from several of the original interviewees, and a new interview with Christian Wolff.
CageTalk also features earlier BBC interviews with Cage, including ones by renowned literary critic Frank Kermode and art critic David Sylvester. In addition, there are discussions of Cage with Bonnie Bird, Earle Brown, Merce Cunningham,Minna Lederman, Otto Luening, Jackson Mac Low, Peadar Mercier, Pauline Oliveros, John Rockwell, Kurt Schwertsik, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Virgil Thomson, David Tudor, LaMonte Young, and Paul Zukovsky. Most of these interviews weregiven to Peter Dickinson but there are others in which with Rebecca Boyle, Anthony Cheevers, Michael Oliver, and Roger Smalley were the interviewers.
Peter Dickinson, British composer and pianist, is Emeritus Professor,University of Keele and University of London, and has written or edited several books about twentieth-century music, including Copland Connotations [Boydell Press, 2002] and The Music of Lennox Berkeley [Boydell Press, 2003].
Industry Reviews
ForeWord Magazine selected this title as one of its top music books from University Presses for 2006. * . *
Ideal introduction to Cage. * TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT *
The first-hand accounts related by Cage's colleagues offer new insights and a palpable vibrancy. . . . A sense of intimacy and richness of anecdotal detail. . . . Merit[s] study by all with an interest in the composer. -- Charles Madsen * BULLETIN OF THE SOCIETY FOR AMERICAN MUSIC *
We hear Cage in his own words, in conversations conducted between 1966 and 1988, and put in the context of interviews with close colleagues such as pianist David Tudor, choreographer Merce Cunningham and fellow composers including Earle Brown and Virgil Thomson. . . . Dickinson's approach to collecting these interviews is methodical and fastidious. . . . [His] introductory chapter is . . . cogent. -- Philip Clark * GRAMOPHONE *
This book is no eulogy compendium. Instead, the interviewees simply give us what we would all prefer to have, which is a diverse set of instructive, good-humoured accounts of their dealings with the book's subject. . . . Informative and entertaining -- often amusing: Stockhausen's thinly-veiled tetchiness makes for a diverting subtext, while Virgil Thomson refers to Cage's former wife Xenia as 'the Eskimo.' Technically, too, this book is a success, with its comprehensive references, its proper indexing and, joy of joys, footnotes . . . on the page you're actually on. A valuable and enjoyable read which I unreservedly recommend. Five stars (out of five). -- Roger Thomas * BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE *
A lively compilation of dialogues with and about Cage . . . [opening with Dickinson's] useful introductory overview.. . . [Cage's] influence burns brighter than ever. -- Fiona Maddocks * THE SPECTATOR *
Essential reading for anyone interested in the music of our time. * WHOLENOTE *
Cage's engaging manner radiates from these pages. . . . CageTalk is excellent, leaving one with feelings of affection toward its subject. -- John Robert Brown * CLASSICAL MUSIC *
A real treasure house of fascinating exchanges. . . . An entertaining perspective on [Cage's] inventive and imaginative world of sound, visual imagery and movement. -- Patrick Standford * MUSIC AND VISION DAILY *
Recommended to all music libraries, [and] specialists concerned with...[Cage's] enduring work. -- Brett Boutwell * JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY FOR AMERICAN MUSIC *
