John Cage, Jr.

John Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde.

Cage taught at Black Mountain College in the summers of 1948 and 1952 and was in residence during the summer of 1953.

John Cage and Merce Cunningham visited Black Mountain College in April 1948. On that visit Cage gave the first complete performance of his “Sonatas and Interludes” for prepared piano. The returned as guest faculty for the summer of 1948. At that time Cage directed an Amateur Festival of the Music of Eric Satie. It was in the summer of 1948 that John Cage attended the wedding of Vera Baker and Paul Williams in the Quiet House. Both Cage and Cunningham returned in the summer of 1952. It was that summer that Cage’s “happening” took place and that he read the The Huang Po Doctrine of Universal Mind. Cunningham taught in the summer of 1953. It was that summer that he brought dancers from New York and formed his dance company. Cage visited in the summer of 1953 and designed the intaglio program for the company’s performances. Cage visited.

Above is BMC Project biography and description of time at BMC, written by Mary Emma Harris

"Dancer and choreographer Merce Cunningham and composer and musician John Cage were already working together when they first came to Black Mountain in 1948 and reconstructed Erik Satie’s The Ruse of the Medusa with collaborators including Buckminster Fuller, Elaine and Willem de Kooning. On their return in 1952 they worked with others including pianist David Tudor and artist Robert Rauschenberg. Together, though orchestrated by Cage, this group created what could be called the first ‘happening’, an untitled event (now sometimes known as Theatre Piece no.1) in the college dining hall. A number of performances took place within a choreographed time bracket, but without narrative or causal relation to each other. Though few were there in the audience, the ripples of the event played out through the following decades in avant-garde performance." Blurb shared by Tate

Black Mountain College Project

Mary Emma Harris interviewed John in 1974 and the transcript is available from Appalachian State University under The Mary Emma Harris and Black Mountain College Project, Inc. Oral History collection.

Topics: Cornish School and hearing about BMC – April 1948 visit to BMC with Merce Cunningham – 1948 summer session, Satie festival and Ruse of Medusa – friendship with JosefAlbers and disagreement over chance operations – Germanic music domination at college – chance operations – BMC and other schools – Jay Watt (student) – Zen Buddhism and reading of The Huang Po Doctrine of Universal Mind at BMC – happening – influence of Theatre and Its Double, translated by M.C. Richards – Robert Rauschenberg white paintings and Cage silent piece – Charles Olson (faculty) – Josef Albers (faculty) – Willem de Kooning (guest faculty) – Buckminster Fuller (guest faculty) – M.C. Richards (faculty) – New School classes – 1952 summer – 1953 summer – Gate Hill Cooperative Community – Richard Lippold (guest resident) – poverty of college – M.C. Richards criticisms of college – David Tudor (guest performer) – Lou Harrison (faculty) – Stefan Wolpe (faculty) – Water Music – Music of Changes