The Cincinnati Enquirer from Cincinnati, Ohio • Page 157

Stone Walls Do Not a Prison Make, Nor Iron Bars, a CAGE A Yi 1 A i fiV'3 ,1 UlfMl i J. i r- By ARTHUR DARACK Enquirer Book, Art Editor John Cage has been composer In residence at the University of Cincinnati in the semester Just ended. Cincinnati, UC and Cage may recover but surely not as they were before. Cage is a revolutionary In art. He thinks art is not something to be taken solemnly but frivolously, happily, sarcastically, adoringly in a word art is lifelike and should be responded to In kind.

There is nothing revolutionary about this. Many students of the arts would agree with Cage so far. Where Cage departs from the traditionalist is that he conjures up a whole new world of music that seems to cross boundaries into poetry, literature, noise, ballet, painting, politics, technology. The boundaries between music and dancing or music and noise have always been vague, but Cage claims that it makes no sense to talk about boundaries at all. In an age when missiles, satellites and computers have destroyed every kind of boundary, it becomes insidious to attempt to enforce them in any field.

(Cage has a way of genially enraging people when he adds morals and value Judgments to the list of dead restrictions that must be cleared away.) Cage has been teaching and lecturing at the University of Cincinnati, and College-Conservatory faculty and students have presented his music notably the LaSalle Quartet and the pianist Jeanne Kirstein. Cage also was the central figure in an event sponsored by the Contemporary Arts Center at the Newport Yacht Club. The latter facility, not previously associated with cultural affairs, was the scene of a musical happening. Cage asked each guest to provide a tape recording of favorite noise or music. He would edit the tapes and play them at the occasion.

(Continued) I '4'-. crT" iiwiiiiiii, iL 'r I 1 that is, who thinks music needs a break -out si Neither ban nor staffs nor clef signs could stay John Cage in the swift completion of his appointed task: a sort of psychedelic sound created, in this recent instance, with a piano. Above, Cage helps pianist Jeanne Kirstein "gimmick" the instrument with bolts, penny, cardboard, and other debris preparatory to performing one of his uncaged works. Listeners (upper left) heard his lecture and the music, agreed it was way out. Photographed ly ALLAN KAIN THE CINCINNATI PICTORIAL ENQUIRER.

Sunday. July 9. 1947 ji tl THE CINCINNATI PICTORIAL ENQUIRER. Sunday. July 9, 1967.