''Empty Words: Writings '73–'78'' is a book by American
avant-garde
The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
composer
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) 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 fi ...
(1912–1992), first published in 1979 by
Wesleyan University Press
Wesleyan University Press is a university press that is part of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. The press is currently directed by Suzanna Tamminen, a published poet and essayist.
History and overview
Founded (in its present for ...
.
Contents
* "Foreword" (1978)
* "Preface to ''Lecture on the Weather''" (1979)
* "How the Piano Came to be Prepared" (1973)
* "Empty Words" (1974–75)
* "Where Are We Eating? and What Are We Eating? (38 Variations on a Theme by
Alison Knowles
Alison Knowles (born 1933) is an American visual artist known for her installations, performances, soundworks, and publications. Knowles was a founding member of the Fluxus movement, an international network of artists who aspired to merge diffe ...
)" (1975)
* "Series re
Morris Graves
Morris Graves (August 28, 1910 – May 5, 2001) was an American painter. He was one of the earliest Modern artists from the Pacific Northwest to achieve national and international acclaim. His style, referred to by some reviewers as Mysticism, ...
" (1974)
* "Sixty-One Mesostics Re and Not Re
Norman O. Brown
Norman Oliver Brown (September 25, 1913 – October 2, 2002) was an American scholar, writer, and social philosopher. Beginning as a classical scholar, his later work branched into wide-ranging, erudite, and intellectually sophisticated cons ...
" (1979)
* "Writing for the Second Time through
Finnegans Wake
''Finnegans Wake'' is a novel by Irish literature, Irish writer James Joyce. It is well known for its experimental style and reputation as one of the most difficult works of fiction in the Western canon. It has been called "a work of fiction whi ...
" (1978)
* "The Future of Music" (1974)
Also included are the following
mesostic
A mesostic is a poem or other text arranged so that a vertical phrase intersects lines of horizontal text. It is similar to an acrostic, but with the vertical phrase intersecting somewhere in the midst of the line, as opposed to the beginning o ...
s:
* "Many Happy Returns" (1979)
* "A Long Letter" (1977)
* "Song" (1979)
* "For S. Fort, Dancer" (1979)
* "For William Mc N. Who studied with
Ezra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...
" (1979)
* "
Wright's Oberlin House Restored by E. Johnson" (1979)
* "'I'm the happiest person I know' (S.W.)" (1975)
See also
*
List of compositions by John Cage
This is a list of compositions by John Cage (1912–1992), arranged in chronological order by year of composition.
List of works
Apprenticeship period (1932–36)
* ''Greek Ode'', for voice and piano (1932)
* ''First Chapter of Ecclesiastes'' ...
1979 books
Essay collections
{{Essay-stub