In the early 1950s John Cage and Morton Feldman were commissioned to score documentary films on t... more In the early 1950s John Cage and Morton Feldman were commissioned to score documentary films on two significant American artists: Cage for the Herbert Matter documentary on sculptor Alexander Calder, and Feldman for the Hans Namuth and Paul Falkenberg documentary on Abstract Expressionist painter Jackson Pollock. Both artists saw these commissions as opportunities to formalize connections between their compositional approaches to sound and the visual approach to space, kinetic movement, and ground revealed in the time-based poetics of the moving image. Examination of archival documents from these film commissions, including original scores and correspondence, reveals numerous parallels between the New York schools of music and visual arts. Both films predate the radical shift in Cagean esthetics by only a year, and the commissions provided a self-conscious examination of the artistic ‘intermedia’ connections between auditory and visual approaches to a work of art. Keywords: John Cage; Morton Feldman; Jackson Pollock; Herbert Matter; Alexander Calder; Kinetic Sculpture; Film Music
Late in his career, John Cage often recalled his brief interaction with German abstract animator ... more Late in his career, John Cage often recalled his brief interaction with German abstract animator Oskar Fischinger in 1937 as the primary impetus for his early percussion works. Further examination of this connection reveals an important technological foundation to Cage's call for the expansion of musical resources. Fischinger's experiments with film phonography (the manipulation of the optical portion of sound film to synthesize sounds) mirrored contemporaneous refinements in recording and synthesis technology of electron beam tubes for film and television. New documentation on Cage's early career in Los Angeles, including research Cage conducted for his father John Cage, Sr.'s patents, explain his interest in these technologies. Finally, an examination of the sources of Cage's 1940 essay “The Future of Music: Credo” reveals the extent of Cage's knowledge of early sound synthesis and recording technologies and presents a more nuanced understanding of the historical relevance and origins of this document.
In the early 1950s John Cage and Morton Feldman were commissioned to score documentary films on t... more In the early 1950s John Cage and Morton Feldman were commissioned to score documentary films on two significant American artists: Cage for the Herbert Matter documentary on sculptor Alexander Calder, and Feldman for the Hans Namuth and Paul Falkenberg documentary on Abstract Expressionist painter Jackson Pollock. Both artists saw these commissions as opportunities to formalize connections between their compositional approaches to sound and the visual approach to space, kinetic movement, and ground revealed in the time-based poetics of the moving image. Examination of archival documents from these film commissions, including original scores and correspondence, reveals numerous parallels between the New York schools of music and visual arts. Both films predate the radical shift in Cagean esthetics by only a year, and the commissions provided a self-conscious examination of the artistic ‘intermedia’ connections between auditory and visual approaches to a work of art. Keywords: John Cage; Morton Feldman; Jackson Pollock; Herbert Matter; Alexander Calder; Kinetic Sculpture; Film Music
Late in his career, John Cage often recalled his brief interaction with German abstract animator ... more Late in his career, John Cage often recalled his brief interaction with German abstract animator Oskar Fischinger in 1937 as the primary impetus for his early percussion works. Further examination of this connection reveals an important technological foundation to Cage's call for the expansion of musical resources. Fischinger's experiments with film phonography (the manipulation of the optical portion of sound film to synthesize sounds) mirrored contemporaneous refinements in recording and synthesis technology of electron beam tubes for film and television. New documentation on Cage's early career in Los Angeles, including research Cage conducted for his father John Cage, Sr.'s patents, explain his interest in these technologies. Finally, an examination of the sources of Cage's 1940 essay “The Future of Music: Credo” reveals the extent of Cage's knowledge of early sound synthesis and recording technologies and presents a more nuanced understanding of the historical relevance and origins of this document.
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Keywords: John Cage; Morton Feldman; Jackson Pollock; Herbert Matter; Alexander Calder; Kinetic Sculpture; Film Music
Talks by Richard Brown
Keywords: John Cage; Morton Feldman; Jackson Pollock; Herbert Matter; Alexander Calder; Kinetic Sculpture; Film Music