Dissertation Index
Author: Nelson, Mark, D Title: Quieting the Mind, Manifesting Mind: The Zen Buddhist Roots of John Cage's Early Chance-Determined and Indeterminate Compositions Institution: Princeton University Begun: June 1989 Completed: February 1995 Abstract: In the course of his engagement with Zen Buddhism in the early 1950's, John Cage began to regard music as a discipline comparable to sitting meditation. Music, he discovered, could function as a vehicle with which one might curb the inveterate thinking that artificially separates human beings from the 'divine' flood of perceptual experience. Cage aspired to immerse musicians and listeners in this flood. He turned to chance operations as essential aids with which to minimize ego-involvement in determining musical continuity; and the radical alterations of his methods for harnessing chance paralleled substantial refinements of his aesthetic creed. After examining fundamental tenets of Zen Buddhist thought, this paper considers Cageian assimilations of that thought, with particular focus upon 'nothing,' the composer's adaptation of the Zen concept of 'emptiness'. Such philosophical ground is then used as the basis for integrated discussion of the synergic evolutions of Cage's aesthetic perspective and musical style in 1948-1960. The indeterminate scores -- which may be viewed as challenging puzzles for David Tudor, as incipient 'circus situations,' and as utterly flexible tools facilitating the mining of any facet of the unpredictable and manifold universe -- are portrayed as apotheoses of Cage's Zen-informed activity of the 1950's. Keywords: indeterminacy, chance, Zen Buddhism, non-intention, I Ching, Variations TOC: Chapter 1 Reconsidering Music's Purposes Chapter 2 Zen Buddhism Chapter 3 Cageian Echoes of Zen Buddhist Doctrine Chapter 4 Accomplishing Nothing, Educing Nothing Chapter 5 Early Glimpses of Non-Intention Chapter 6 First Freedoms from the 'accretions of habits and tastes': Concerto for Prepared Piano and Chamber Orchestra Chapter 7 Charts, Chance Chapter 8 'the music is there befOre /it is writteN: Music for Piano (Indeterminacy I) Chapter 9 The Synthesis of the Time-Length Pieces Chapter 10 Enacting Process: Indeterminacy II Contact: 3042 Shore Drive Crawfordsville, IN 47933 Voice: 317 866-1552 Mark Nelson Department of Music, Wabash College nelsonm@scholar.wabash.edu |