About the Book
The correspondence between composer John Cage and Peter Yates represents the third and final part of Cage's most significant exchanges of letters, following those with Pierre Boulez and with David Tudor. Martin Iddon's book is the first volume to collect the complete extant correspondence with his critical friend, thus completing the 'trilogy' of Cage correspondence published by Cambridge. By bringing together more than 100 letters, beginning in 1940 and continuing until 1971, Iddon reveals the dialogue within which many of Cage's ideas were first forged and informed, with particular focus on his developing attitudes to music criticism and aesthetics. The correspondence with Yates represents precisely, in alignment with Cage's fastidious neatness, the part of his letter writing in which he engages most directly with the last part of his famous tricolon, 'composing's one thing, performing's another, listening's a third'.
Table of Contents:
Introduction; 1. John Cage to Peter Yates, undated [1940?]; 2. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1940; 3. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1941; 4. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1941; John Cage, 'Organized Sound' draft, 1941; Peter Yates, 'Organized Sound,' California Arts and Architecture (1941); 5. John Cage to Peter Yates, undated [1941]; 6. John Cage to Peter Yates, undated [ca. 1947]; 7. John Cage to Peter Yates, undated [ca. 1947]; 8. John Cage to Peter Yates, undated [ca. September 1948]; Peter Yates, 'Music,' Arts and Architecture (1948); 9. John Cage to Peter Yates, undated [ca. 1948; Peter Yates, 'Music,' Arts and Architecture (1948); Peter Yates, 'Music,' Arts and Architecture (1948); 10. John Cage to Peter Yates, undated [ca. 1948]; 11. John Cage to Peter Yates, undated [ca. 1948]; 12. John Cage to Peter Yates, undated [early 1949]; Peter Yates, 'Music,' Arts and Architecture (1949); 13. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1953; Peter Yates, 'Music,' Arts and Architecture (1953); 14. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1953; 15. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1953; Peter Yates, 'Pierre Boulez,' Arts and Architecture (1957); Peter Yates, 'A Collage of American Composers - Part 3,' Arts and Architecture (1959); Peter Yates, 'A Collage of American Composers - Part 4,' Arts and Architecture (1959); 16. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1959; 17. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1959; 18. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1959; 19. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1959; Peter Yates, 'Virgil Thomson and Horatio Parker,' Arts and Architecture (1959); 20. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1959; 21. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1959; 22. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1959; 23. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1960; 24. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1960; 25. John Cage to Peter Yates, undated [ca. 1960]; Peter Yates, 'Two Albums by John Cage - Part 1,' Arts and Architecture (1960); 26. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1960; 27. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1960; 28. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1960; Peter Yates, 'Two Albums by John Cage - Part 2,' Arts and Architecture (1960); 29. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1960; 30. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1960; 31. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1960; 32. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1960; 33. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1960; 34. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1960; 35. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1960; 36. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1960; 37. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1960; 38. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1960; 39. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1960; Peter Yates, 'Monday Mad on Tuesday,' Arts and Architecture (1960); Peter Yates, 'Music,' Arts and Architecture (1960); 40. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1961; 41. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1961; Peter Yates, 'American Experimental Tradition,' unpublished manuscript [ca. 1961]; 42. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1961; 43. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1961; 44. John Cage to Peter Yates, undated [1961]; 45. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1961; 46. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1961; 47. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1961; 48. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1961; 49. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1961; Peter Yates and John Whitney, 'Notes for Music,' unpublished manuscript [1961]; Peter Yates, 'Sound,' manuscript [1961]; 50. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1961; 51. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1961; 52. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1961; Peter Yates, 'A Lost Center,' manuscript [1961]; 53. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1961; 54. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1961; Peter Yates, 'A General Report,' Arts and Architecture (1962); 55. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1962; 56. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1962; Peter Yates, 'Silence by John Cage,' Arts and Architecture (1962); Peter Yates, review of John Cage, Silence, Notes: the Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association (1962); Peter Yates, 'More Than Time,' Arts and Architecture (1962); Peter Yates, 'John Cage's Weekend in Los Angeles,' Arts and Architecture (1962); 57. John Cage to Frances and Peter Yates, 1962; Peter Yates, 'The American Artist,' manuscript written for the
About the Author :
Martin Iddon is Professor of Music and Aesthetics at the University of Leeds. His musicological research largely focusses on post-war music in Germany and the United States of America and his books New Music at Darmstadt (Cambridge, 2013) and John Cage and David Tudor (Cambridge, 2013).
Review :
'This is the third book that Martin Iddon has contributed to Arnold Whittall's influential series at Cambridge University Press … Iddon is a footnote virtuoso where every individual mentioned is given full details - helpfully on the page - and there are many examples of ingenious investigation.' Peter Dickinson, Musical Opinion
