Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Neil Powell: ‘Music’
- Introduction
- Dana Gioia: ‘Lives of the Great Composers’
- Thomas Tallis (1505–85)
- William Byrd (?1543–1623)
- John Dowland (?1563–1626)
- Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643)
- Gregorio Allegri (1582–1652)
- Orlando Gibbons (1583–1625)
- Dietrich Buxtehude (1637–1707)
- Henry Purcell (1659–95)
- François Couperin (1668–1733)
- Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741)
- Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683–1764)
- Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)
- George Frideric Handel (1685–1759)
- Domenico Scarlatti (1685–1757)
- Christoph Willibald von Gluck (1714–87)
- Franz Joseph Haydn (1732–1809)
- Antonio Salieri (1750–1825)
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–91)
- Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)
- Niccolò Paganini (1782–1840)
- John Field (1782–1837)
- Franz Schubert (1797–1828)
- Hector Berlioz (1803–69)
- Felix Mendelssohn (1809–47)
- Fryderyk Chopin (1810–49)
- Robert Schumann (1810–56)
- Franz Liszt (1811–86)
- Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901)
- Richard Wagner (1813–83)
- Anton Bruckner (1824–96)
- Bedřich Smetana (1824–84)
- Johannes Brahms (1833–97)
- Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921)
- Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840–93)
- Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904)
- Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900)
- Edvard Grieg (1843–1907)
- Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924)
- Leoš Janáček (1854–1928)
- Edward Elgar (1857–1934)
- Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924)
- Hugo Wolf (1860–1903)
- Gustav Mahler (1860–1911)
- Frederick Delius (1862–1934)
- Claude Debussy (1862–1918)
- Richard Strauss (1864–1949)
- Jean Sibelius (1865–1957)
- Erik Satie (1866–1925)
- Amy Beach (1867–1944)
- Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958)
- Sergei Rachmaninov (1873–1943)
- Gustav Holst (1874–1934)
- Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951)
- Maurice Ravel (1875–1937)
- Ottorino Respighi (1879–1936)
- Béla Bartók (1881–1945)
- Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971)
- Percy Grainger (1882–1961)
- Arnold Bax (1883–1953)
- Anton Webern (1883–1945)
- Alban Berg (1885–1935)
- George Butterworth (1885–1916)
- Bohuslav Martinů (1890–1959)
- Ivor Gurney (1890–1937)
- Sergey Prokofiev (1891–1953)
- Peter Warlock (Philip Heseltine) (1894–1930)
- Francis Poulenc (1899–1963)
- Aaron Copland (1900–90)
- Gerald Finzi (1901–56)
- Michael Tippett (1905–98)
- Dmitry Shostakovich (1906–75)
- Olivier Messiaen (1908–92)
- Samuel Barber (1910–81)
- John Cage (1912–92)
- Benjamin Britten (1913–76)
- Witold Lutosławski (1913–94)
- György Ligeti (1923–2006)
- Harrison Birtwistle (b.1934)
- Peter Maxwell Davies (b.1934)
- Arvo Pärt (b.1935)
- Epilogue
- Composers
- Poets
- Acknowledgements
- Index of First Lines
- Index of Titles
John Cage (1912–92)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 May 2021
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Neil Powell: ‘Music’
- Introduction
- Dana Gioia: ‘Lives of the Great Composers’
- Thomas Tallis (1505–85)
- William Byrd (?1543–1623)
- John Dowland (?1563–1626)
- Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643)
- Gregorio Allegri (1582–1652)
- Orlando Gibbons (1583–1625)
- Dietrich Buxtehude (1637–1707)
- Henry Purcell (1659–95)
- François Couperin (1668–1733)
- Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741)
- Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683–1764)
- Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)
- George Frideric Handel (1685–1759)
- Domenico Scarlatti (1685–1757)
- Christoph Willibald von Gluck (1714–87)
- Franz Joseph Haydn (1732–1809)
- Antonio Salieri (1750–1825)
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–91)
- Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)
- Niccolò Paganini (1782–1840)
- John Field (1782–1837)
- Franz Schubert (1797–1828)
- Hector Berlioz (1803–69)
- Felix Mendelssohn (1809–47)
- Fryderyk Chopin (1810–49)
- Robert Schumann (1810–56)
- Franz Liszt (1811–86)
- Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901)
- Richard Wagner (1813–83)
- Anton Bruckner (1824–96)
- Bedřich Smetana (1824–84)
- Johannes Brahms (1833–97)
- Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921)
- Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840–93)
- Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904)
- Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900)
- Edvard Grieg (1843–1907)
- Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924)
- Leoš Janáček (1854–1928)
- Edward Elgar (1857–1934)
- Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924)
- Hugo Wolf (1860–1903)
- Gustav Mahler (1860–1911)
- Frederick Delius (1862–1934)
- Claude Debussy (1862–1918)
- Richard Strauss (1864–1949)
- Jean Sibelius (1865–1957)
- Erik Satie (1866–1925)
- Amy Beach (1867–1944)
- Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958)
- Sergei Rachmaninov (1873–1943)
- Gustav Holst (1874–1934)
- Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951)
- Maurice Ravel (1875–1937)
- Ottorino Respighi (1879–1936)
- Béla Bartók (1881–1945)
- Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971)
- Percy Grainger (1882–1961)
- Arnold Bax (1883–1953)
- Anton Webern (1883–1945)
- Alban Berg (1885–1935)
- George Butterworth (1885–1916)
- Bohuslav Martinů (1890–1959)
- Ivor Gurney (1890–1937)
- Sergey Prokofiev (1891–1953)
- Peter Warlock (Philip Heseltine) (1894–1930)
- Francis Poulenc (1899–1963)
- Aaron Copland (1900–90)
- Gerald Finzi (1901–56)
- Michael Tippett (1905–98)
- Dmitry Shostakovich (1906–75)
- Olivier Messiaen (1908–92)
- Samuel Barber (1910–81)
- John Cage (1912–92)
- Benjamin Britten (1913–76)
- Witold Lutosławski (1913–94)
- György Ligeti (1923–2006)
- Harrison Birtwistle (b.1934)
- Peter Maxwell Davies (b.1934)
- Arvo Pärt (b.1935)
- Epilogue
- Composers
- Poets
- Acknowledgements
- Index of First Lines
- Index of Titles
Summary
The Old Man comes out with an Opinion
This long orchestral piece records a day
the composer spent one summer meditating
in Dibnah's yard on the sounds of dereliction,
or possibly the dereliction of sound:
the settlement of rust, the flake and drift
toward the earth of forged and hammered things,
the creak of shiny flanges in the wind,
and the occasional crash of martial metal
as boys dribbled a biscuit box along
between the ornamental tetanus hedges
of Fred's Versailles, parterres of ferrous oxide.
Sometimes I wish that Fred's new crush-compactor
had crumpled the composer (violin solo)
and his jalopy (piano, timpani)
in one bright ingot, multicoloured foil
(cymbals), and hoyed the lot in the canal
(a genuine splash!, an hommage to John Cage).
ALISTAIR ELLIOT
Cage
The composer, locked in a soundproof room in Harvard
Heard his heartbeat and the sound of Niagara Falls
Produced by the operation of his nervous system,
From which he derived a theory, no doubt.
Me, I heard a throaty click at the end of ‘wedlock’.
And Niagara on the long-distance line.
I knew a couple once, went up there on their honeymoon.
After a week, they said, you don't even hear it.
MICHAEL DONAGHY
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- Chapter
- Information
- Accompanied VoicesPoets on Composers: From Thomas Tallis to Arvo Pärt, pp. 157Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2015