Billy il Bugiardo

1. Eagle Twin
2. Frank Zappa
3. La Monte Young
4. John Cage

Lettera inviata a “You Book”, rubrica di auto-recensioni di libri all’interno della trasmissione radiofonica “Fahrenheit”, in onda su RAI Radio 3.

“Ciao a tutti, mi chiamo Marco Colombo, musicista. Vorrei parlare del volume “Lettera a uno sconosciuto”, di John Cage, a cura di Richard Kostelanez, edizioni Socrates, Roma – 1996.
Lettera a uno sconosciuto, un generoso volume di oltre 500 pagine, raccoglie centinaia di interviste a uno dei più significativi e importanti musicisti del XX secolo: John Cage.
Attraverso la molteplicità di domande rivolte al musicista, sempre puntuali e stimolanti, si rivela al lettore la sua brillantezza di pensiero, la ferrea coerenza artistica e il suo splendido carattere gioioso e al contempo profondissimo.
Tra i molti, forse l’aspetto più interessante del pensiero di Cage è il suo consapevole avvicinamento alle dottrine del Buddismo Zen, necessarie per svuotare la mente dall’oppressione della memoria. In questo modo si viene liberati dai vincoli della tradizione e si accoglie l’inventiva nella sua forma più pura.
Un altro aspetto fondamentale della poetica del compositore è il ricorso alle operazioni casuali attraverso l’I Ching, il libro dei mutamenti. In questo modo, l’apparente aleatorietà della composizione musicale viene circoscritta in uno schema decisionale che ne definisce i parametri tecnici.
Formidabili sono anche le sue scintillanti digressioni – mai accademiche – sugli argomenti a lui cari: la pittura, lo studio dei funghi, la macrobiotica, la pedagogia e la filosofia sociale.
Una lettura che, seppure di argomento prettamente musicale, risulta agevole e stimolante, da cui ogni estimatore dell’ingegno umano può trarre certamente ispirazione ed esempio.
Sono Marco Colombo di Milano e ho parlato del volume “Lettera a uno sconosciuto”, di John Cage, ed. Socrates, 1996″.

There was an experiment done on plants in which plants were place near speakers in 3 separate rooms with 3 different kinds of music. The first were given loud Rock music, the second were given Western classical, and the third were gived Indian classical (this is NOT a plug for Indian music… it is only to say that Indian music is one system, among many that still uses the natural tuning system). So what happened… the plants which were given Rock music all died, the plants given Western classical stayed the same, and the plants given Indian classical music literally wrapped themselves around the speakers!

From Unfretted.com – Edward Powell

AFFECTIVE KEY CHARACTERISTICS
from Christian Schubart’s Ideen zu einer Aesthetik der Tonkunst (1806)
Da/From: http://www.wmich.edu/mus-theo/courses/keys.html

C Major
Completely Pure. Its character is: innocence, simplicity, naivety, children’s talk.

C Minor
Declaration of love and at the same time the lament of unhappy love. All languishing, longing, sighing of the love-sick soul lies in this key.

Db Major
A leering key, degenerating into grief and rapture. It cannot laugh, but it can smile; it cannot howl, but it can at least grimace its crying.–Consequently only unusual characters and feelings can be brought out in this key.

C# Minor
Penitential lamentation, intimate conversation with God, the friend and help-meet of life; sighs of disappointed friendship and love lie in its radius.

D Major
The key of triumph, of Hallejuahs, of war-cries, of victory-rejoicing. Thus, the inviting symphonies, the marches, holiday songs and heaven-rejoicing choruses are set in this key.

D Minor
Melancholy womanliness, the spleen and humours brood.

Eb Major
The key of love, of devotion, of intimate conversation with God.

D# Minor
Feelings of the anxiety of the soul’s deepest distress, of brooding despair, of blackest depresssion, of the most gloomy condition of the soul. Every fear, every hesitation of the shuddering heart, breathes out of horrible D# minor. If ghosts could speak, their speech would approximate this key.

E Major
Noisy shouts of joy, laughing pleasure and not yet complete, full delight lies in E Major.

E minor
Naive, womanly innocent declaration of love, lament without grumbling; sighs accompanied by few tears; this key speaks of the imminent hope of resolving in the pure happiness of C major.

F Major
Complaisance & Calm.

F Minor
Deep depression, funereal lament, groans of misery and longing for the grave.

F# Major
Triumph over difficulty, free sigh of relief utered when hurdles are surmounted; echo of a soul which has fiercely struggled and finally conquered lies in all uses of this key.

F# Minor
A gloomy key: it tugs at passion as a dog biting a dress. Resentment and discontent are its language.

G Major
Everything rustic, idyllic and lyrical, every calm and satisfied passion, every tender gratitude for true friendship and faithful love,–in a word every gentle and peaceful emotion of the heart is correctly expressed by this key.

G Minor
Discontent, uneasiness, worry about a failed scheme; bad-tempered gnashing of teeth; in a word: resentment and dislike.

Ab Major
Key of the grave. Death, grave, putrefaction, judgment, eternity lie in its radius.

Ab Minor
Grumbler, heart squeezed until it suffocates; wailing lament, difficult struggle; in a word, the color of this key is everything struggling with difficulty.

A Major
This key includes declarations of innocent love, satisfaction with one’s state of affairs; hope of seeing one’s beloved again when parting; youthful cheerfulness and trust in God.

A minor
Pious womanliness and tenderness of character.

Bb Major
Cheerful love, clear conscience, hope aspiration for a better world.

Bb minor
A quaint creature, often dressed in the garment of night. It is somewhat surly and very seldom takes on a pleasant countenance. Mocking God and the world; discontented with itself and with everything; preparation for suicide sounds in this key.

B Major
Strongly coloured, announcing wild passions, composed from the most glaring coulors. Anger, rage, jealousy, fury, despair and every burden of the heart lies in its sphere.

B Minor
This is as it were the key of patience, of calm awaiting ones’s fate and of submission to divine dispensation.

Translated by Rita Steblin in A History of Key Characteristics in the 18th and Early 19th Centuries. UMI Research Press (1983).

Fai clic sull’immagine per ingrandire.

Legenda:
A) Muscolo abduttore lungo del pollice assai sviluppato;
B) Zone psorisiache diffuse da stress e alimentazione sommaria;
C) Unghie sozze da usura sulle corde (e sporadici episodi depressori);
D) Ipercheratosi da usura (nonostante sia il mignolo);
E) Torsione dell’articolazione falange-falangetta da barrè;
F) Lesioni da gatto domestico (per mal riposta confidenza con l’infido animale).

Prima di intraprendere la carriera, pensateci due volte… LoL

sìconcordo

Synesthesia-like mappings between visual lightness and auditory pitch and between visual lightness and melodic interval were examined. When subjects rated how visual lightnesses and auditory pitches “fit together,” lighter stimuli fit better with higher pitches, and darker stimuli fit better with lower pitches. These patterns were stronger against black than against white visual backgrounds; however, effects of visual background were eliminated when subjects had a large set of lightness levels from which to choose the visual lightness level that best fit a given auditory pitch or melodic interval. When subjects chose which visual lightness best fit or matched a melodic interval, lighter stimuli were chosen for ascending melodic intervals, and darker stimuli were chosen for descending melodic intervals. Larger melodic intervals produced more extreme (lighter or darker) choices. Auditory pitch exhibits meaningful synesthesia-like mappings with visual lightness when unidimensionally varied in frequency and when multidimensionally varied in interval size and direction.

Synesthesia-like mappings of lightness, pitch, and melodic interval.
- American Journal of Psychology. 109(2):219-38, 1996.

M. 62, 2, 4, 173, 42, 8, 23, 21, 47, 63, 46, 21, 9
L. 9, 5, 65, 44, 159, 51, 20, 85, 63, 87, 3, 36, 42, 28, 6, 2

I have nothing to say and I’m saying it. And that is poetry as I need it.
– John Cage.