Year: 2003
Type: article
Abstract: Haskins -1-'After I had been studying with him for two years, Schoenberg said, "In order to write music, you must have a feeling for harmony."I explained to him that I had no feeling for harmony.He then said that I would always encounter an obstacle, that it would be as though I came to a wall through which I could not pass.I said, "In that case I shall devote my life to beating my head against that wall."' 2 Of all the well-known quotations by John Cage, this one is among his most provocative.It evokes the composer's indifference, even resistance, to harmony that forms such an important cornerstone in his mythos.But while the composer did in fact distance himself from harmonic systems early on, that distancing has helped to reinforce a tendency in Cage scholarship to minimize an engagement with the s o u n d s of his music in a detailed and critical way.-2-For instance, James Pritchett sketches, but falls short of explaining, Cage's peculiar approach to harmony in his discussion of the String Quartet in Four Parts (1950).Pritchett observes that the composer's approach allowed him "to divorce harmony from voice-leading, and thus produce a succession of harmonies that is truly freed from structural responsibility."He observes that the "fragmentation of the harmonic progression" is "distinctly Cagean" but avoids discussing exactly w h a t is Research for this essay was made possible in part by the Dena Epstein Award for Archival and Library Research in American Music of the Music Library Association, which support I gratefully acknowledge. 1 (Editorial note: This paper was given at Cage 2002: 90/10, a study day to discuss, perform and listen to John Cage's music.
Source: European Journal of Musicology
Author: Rob Haskins
Language: English
Subfield: Music
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2335848339