HPSCHD - moving toward a world without conductors

Virgil Thomson wrote that Cage, unlike Wagner, emphasized show business. I would counter that Wagner also deployed show business with his lavish designs and self-promotion of a cult-like following, all of which is good for sales. I believe Thomson mislabels Cage's intent as "production of ecstasy." While this is surely Wagner's goal, it seems Cage would have eschewed such a heightened emotional state.

My question of the Brechtian separation of media is how do they form a cohesive whole if they were conceived totally independently? I guess this situation could function as a collage does functions as a work of art. Perhaps the very frame of my question refutes Copeland's claim that the Wagnerian model of integration is not dominant today.

Art to prepare way for utopia. Makes sense that the American view of anarchy would downplay the socialist aspect in favor of individualism.

Cage engages in the age-old discussion of faith in technology. Has life improved since the Industrial Revolution? His optimistic faith had a large part in shaping his politics and aesthetic.

I feel totally inept to write on HPSCHD without experiencing the work firsthand. Apparently the work was performed at the Concertgebouw in Bruges in 2010, a performance for which they specifically asked the audience to keep their cell phones on. Unfortunately, I can not find any reviews about how the work was received by current audiences.

The biggest challenge for me to understand and enjoy Cage's work (and others' in this vein) is escaping the need to assign value judgements, locate a narrative, and decipher what the composer is trying to communicate.




                         Wagner                                          Cage
                       show business                                  show business and promotion
                       hypnotize, fog senses                       critical distance
media             synthesis                                          individuality and independence
Audience       Private, uniform, personal               individual, self-determined, shared with others
experience     isolated, intoxicated dulling of senses          community, perception and response
response         unified                                             diverse
content           determined, fixed, structure            free, participatory
                       exclusive                                          inclusive
composer       control, emotive                              offering, helpful, providing materials for use
                       narrative, goal-oriented                  non-narrative
                       "shared spiritual bath"
politics           racist baggage                                 Silence on race (baggage?)
                       technology                                      technology
                       synthesis of media                          "Global village" bridging cultures
                      culmination of high modern            continuation of high modern
                       elitism, walled off from society      elitism, walled off from society (less so)
             view of art as preparing social change     view of art as preparing social change