Empty Words
Encyclopedia
- This article is about the John Cage book. "Empty Words" is also the title of songs by Bowery ElectricBowery ElectricBowery Electric was an American indie band formed in New York's East Village in 1992 by Lawrence Chandler and Martha Schwendener.-Music:Bowery Electric's music defies easy classification...
, Böhse OnkelzBöhse OnkelzThe Böhse Onkelz were a German rock group that existed from 1980 to 2005. Although being ignored by the mass media for their controversial past, since Viva los tioz in 1998 almost every album reached number one on the German album charts. According to record certifications and additional sources...
, Breed 77Breed 77Breed 77 is a British band from the overseas territory of Gibraltar whose music is a fusion of alternative metal and flamenco.-Origin:Breed 77 comes from the British overseas territory of Gibraltar. Old Gibraltarian school friends, Paul Isola, Danny Felice, and Stuart Cavilla met up in London and...
, Death (metal band), QuasiQuasiQuasi is an American indie rock band formed in Portland, Oregon in 1993 by ex-husband and wife Sam Coomes and Janet Weiss . Since 2007 the group has been a trio, following the addition of bassist Joanna Bolme.-History:In 1990 , Coomes, Weiss, and Brad Pedinov formed the band Motorgoat...
and The Rich KidsThe Rich KidsRich Kids were a short-lived, seminal new wave band from London, founded in 1977 by Glen Matlock following his departure from The Sex Pistols. The band also included future Ultravox member Midge Ure, and Rusty Egan, who later went to found Visage.-Career:...
.
Empty Words: Writings ’73–’78 is a book by American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
John Cage
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer, music theorist, writer, philosopher and artist. 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...
(1912–1992), first published in 1979 by Wesleyan University Press
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...
. The book contains the following works:
- "Foreword" (1978)
- "Preface to Lecture on the Weather" (1979)
- "How the Piano Came to be Prepared" (1973)
- "Empty Words" (1974–5)
- "Where Are We Eating? and What Are We Eating? (38 Variations on a Theme by Alison KnowlesAlison KnowlesAlison Knowles in New York City is an American visual artist known for her soundworks, installations, performances, and publications. Knowles was very active in the Fluxus movement, and continues to create work inspired by her Fluxus experience....
)" (1975) - "Series re Morris GravesMorris GravesMorris Cole Graves was an American expressionist painter. Along with Guy Anderson, Kenneth Callahan, William Cumming, and Mark Tobey, he founded the Northwest School. Graves was also a mystic.-Early years:...
" (1974) - "Sixty-One Mesostics Re and Not Re Norman O. BrownNorman O. BrownNorman Oliver Brown was an American classicist.-Life:Brown's father was an Anglo-Irish mining engineer. His mother was a Cuban of Alsatian and Cuban origin...
" (1979) - "Writing for the Second Time through Finnegans WakeFinnegans WakeFinnegans Wake is a novel by Irish author James Joyce, significant for its experimental style and resulting reputation as one of the most difficult works of fiction in the English language. Written in Paris over a period of seventeen years, and published in 1939, two years before the author's...
" (1978) - "The Future of Music" (1974)
Also included are the following mesostic
Mesostic
A mesostic is a poem or other typography such that a vertical phrase intersects lines of horizontal text. It is similar to an acrostic, but with the vertical phrase intersecting the middle of the line, as opposed to beginning each new line....
s:
- "Many Happy Returns" (1979)
- "A Long Letter" (1977)
- "Song" (1979)
- "For S. Fort, Dancer" (1979)
- "For William Mc N. Who studied with Ezra PoundEzra PoundEzra Weston Loomis Pound was an American expatriate poet and critic and a major figure in the early modernist movement in poetry...
" (1979) - "Wright'sFrank Lloyd WrightFrank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 structures and completed 500 works. Wright believed in designing structures which were in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture...
Oberlin House Restored by E. Johnson" (1979) - "'I'm the happiest person I know' (S.W.)" (1975)