John Cage and Peter Yates: Correspondence on Music Criticism and Aesthetics

Hardback

Main Details

Title John Cage and Peter Yates: Correspondence on Music Criticism and Aesthetics
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Martin Iddon
SeriesMusic since 1900
Physical Properties
Format:Hardback
Pages:330
Dimensions(mm): Height 252,Width 182
Category/Genre20th century and contemporary classical music
Bands, groups and musicians
ISBN/Barcode 9781108480062
ClassificationsDewey:780.922
Audience
Professional & Vocational
Illustrations Worked examples or Exercises

Publishing Details

Publisher Cambridge University Press
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publication Date 14 November 2019
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

The correspondence between composer John Cage and Peter Yates represents the third and final part of Cage's most significant exchanges of letters, following those with Pierre Boulez and with David Tudor. Martin Iddon's book is the first volume to collect the complete extant correspondence with his critical friend, thus completing the 'trilogy' of Cage correspondence published by Cambridge. By bringing together more than 100 letters, beginning in 1940 and continuing until 1971, Iddon reveals the dialogue within which many of Cage's ideas were first forged and informed, with particular focus on his developing attitudes to music criticism and aesthetics. The correspondence with Yates represents precisely, in alignment with Cage's fastidious neatness, the part of his letter writing in which he engages most directly with the last part of his famous tricolon, 'composing's one thing, performing's another, listening's a third'.

Author Biography

Martin Iddon is Professor of Music and Aesthetics at the University of Leeds. His musicological research largely focusses on post-war music in Germany and the United States of America and his books New Music at Darmstadt (Cambridge, 2013) and John Cage and David Tudor (Cambridge, 2013).

Reviews

'This is the third book that Martin Iddon has contributed to Arnold Whittall's influential series at Cambridge University Press ... Iddon is a footnote virtuoso where every individual mentioned is given full details - helpfully on the page - and there are many examples of ingenious investigation.' Peter Dickinson, Musical Opinion