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Title:
A great bear pamphlet #11 diary: how to improve the world (you will only make matters worse), continued part three (1967)

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$11.50
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Summary:
Dick Higgins, founder of Something Else Press (1964-1974), created the Great Bear imprint to publish pamphlets that were quickly printed and easily disseminated, guaranteeing wide distribution and accessibility. Ranging in length from 16 to 32 pages, saddle-stitched and printed on varying color stock, these booklets showcased the work of some of the most innovative writers and artists across the twentieth century. All pamphlets have been out of print since their original publications in the 1960s. Thanks to the editorial initiative Primary Information from New York they are now available again, and the CCA bookstore carries all of them in stock.

Title:
Rire et se taire: sur Marcel Duchamp

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$11.95
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Summary:
J.C. Il ne donnait pas l'impression d'être quelqu'un d'inquiet, non. La seule fois où il m'a troublé, c'est cette fois où il m'en a tant voulu de ne pas avoir gagné une partie d'échecs. C'était une partie que j'aurais pu gagner, et puis j'ai fait un mouvement idiot et il a été vraiment furieux et vraiment en colère. Il m'a dit : 'N'avez-vous jamais envie de gagner?'. Et il m'en voulait tellement qu'il a quitté la pièce, sans sourire ni rien. Et je me suis senti nous étions dans cette petite ville espagnole je me suis senti comme si j'avais fait une erreur en décidant d'être avec lui puisqu'il était tellement en colère contre moi."

Title:
John Cage : a composer's confessions / Confessions d'un compositeur

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Dans cette conférence donnée à New York en 1948, John Cage jette un regard lucide sur les débuts de sa carrière ponctués d'anecdotes édifiantes. C'est avec la plus totale sincérité que John Cage décrit ici le cheminement qui l'a conduit à devenir compositeur. Il a d'abord commencé par des études d'architecture. À ce sujet, il raconte, non sans humour, un voyage en France, pays qui lui sembla totalement recouvert d'architecture gothique ! Mais très vite, il se tourne vers la peinture et la composition.

Title:
John Cage composition in retrospect

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Written in his characteristic "mesostics" (linked lines of prose poetry), Composition in Retrospect is a statement of methodology in which composer John Cage examines the central issues of his work: Indeterminacy, nonunderstanding, inconsistency, imitation, variable structure, contingency. Finished only shortly before his death in 1992, Composition in Retrospect completes the documentation of Cage's thought that began with his classic book Silence (1961), but it is an introduction and invitation to his work as much as a summary or conclusion. Also included in this volume (at Cage's request) is "Themes and Variations," a piece written in 1982 about friends and heroes such as Jasper Johns, Buckminster Fuller, Marcel Duchamp and Erik Satie. Together these pieces form a book that is both a testament to the artists Cage admired and a clear statement of his own ars poetica. John Cage (1912-1992) was an American composer, writer, artist and mycologist. Having studied with Arnold Schonberg (who proclaimed him "not a composer, but an inventor-of genius") and Henry Cowell in the 30s, Cage went on to devise landmark compositions for percussion and prepared piano before making his hugely influential work 4'33" (1952). Later works privileged composition by chance procedure--"imitating Nature in the manner of her operation"--and the use of ambient noise, electronics and tape manipulation. Cage's influence can be seen in the works of countless composers (especially the New York School "group" of Morton Feldman, Christian Wolff and Earle Brown), artists (such as those affiliated with Fluxus) and writers.

Title:
John Cage: a mycological foray

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$75.00
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Summary:
Foraging for mushrooms with John Cage: writing, art, photography and ephemera from an idiosyncratic chapter in the composer's life Imagined as an extended mushroom-foraging expedition, John Cage: A Mycological Foray gathers together Cage’s mushroom-themed compositions, photographs, illustrations and ephemera. Indeterminacy Stories and other writings by Cage are interwoven throughout the first volume within a central essay examining Cage’s enduring relationship with mycology. Also included is a transcript of Cage’s 1983 performance, MUSHROOMS et Variationes. The second volume is the inaugural reproduction of Cage’s 1972 portfolio, Mushroom Book, authored in collaboration with illustrator Lois Long and botanist Alexander H. Smith. Readers are thus drawn through the landscape of Cage’s mycologically centred oeuvre and interests, discovering assorted works, images, compositions, philosophies and ephemera, as one might encounter assorted fungi and flora while foraging.

Title:
Sound cages: John Cage's publications

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$34.00
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Summary:
Divided into four sections, respectively, books, scores, records and scattered documents, Sound Pages systematises an important part of the work of John Cage, addressing the various productions of which the American composer was an author, often overturning the traditional component parts and structures. Cage raised the question of making sound something perceptible to the eye: texts, books and music scores, then, become fully visual entities in which the artist tries to juxtapose syntactical links to a new location of characters on the surface of the sheet according to purely visual rules and criteria. The book accompanies an exhibition of the same name at the Museo Internazionale della Musica in Bologna.

Title:
Mud book: how to make pies and cakes

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$20.95
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In the mid-1950s, legendary avant-garde composer John Cage and artist Lois Long created a truly marvelous object. Part artist's book, part cookbook, and part children's book, "Mud book" is a spirited, if not satirical, take on almost every child's first attempt at cooking and making. Through the humble mud pie add dirt and water! Cage and Long encourage children to explore their imagination and to get their hands dirty, and they offer this warning: Mud pies are to make and look at, not to eat. A unique hybrid of art book, unconventional cookbook, and inspiration for young makers, this new edition of "Mud book" will delight children and parents alike, and makes a charming gift for all ages.

Title:
Autobiographie / An autobiographical statement

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Summary:
Une vie tout en va-et-vient et changements d’avis, qui nous rappelle que ce n’est pas la destination qui importe, mais bien le voyage.Nul doute pour John Cage, il serait un artiste. Mais, de là à choisir une seule et unique forme d’expression artistique, il y a toute une vie : architecture, peinture, composition de musique, théâtre, art du cirque, Cage touche à tout, laisse de côté, puis revient, et décide finalement que c’est la musique qui l’anime. Cette musique, cependant, il l’expérimente : Cage repousse les règles académiques et base ses œuvres sur le silence et le hasard. Par ces fragments de 1989, d'une écriture fluide et ramassée, le compositeur dresse un tableau à la fois succinct et complet des moments forts et charnières de sa vie pourtant extrêmement riche, tout en va-et-vient, recherches et changements d’avis. Le tout, sans jamais se défaire de son humour et de son esprit de dérision inimitables.

Title:
Silence: lectures and writings of John Cage, 50th anniversary edition

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$41.95
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Summary:
Silence, John Cage's first book and epic masterpiece, was published in October 1961. In these lectures, scores, and writings, Cage tries, as he says, to find a way of writing that comes from ideas, is not about them, but that produces them. Often these writings include mesostics and essays created by subjecting the work of other writers to chance procedures using the I Ching. Fifty years later comes a beautiful new edition with a foreword by eminent music critic Kyle Gann

Title:
Radio happenings

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Summary:
Ces deux-là ont beaucoup ri au micro, dans l’intimité d’un studio d’enregistrement de la radio WBAI à New York entre juillet 1966 et janvier 1967. La forme alerte du dialogue permet de mesurer l’humour de ces deux grands compositeurs. Dans ce dialogue à bâtons rompus, dans cet échange d’égal à égal, il est question de musique bien sûr, mais aussi de littérature, de peinture, de politique et du quotidien. Les deux compositeurs parlent aussi de leurs ratages et relatent de multiples anecdotes. Vous apprendrez ainsi comment faire fi du son de la radio de votre voisin sur la plage et aussi que la meilleure oeuvre qui soit est issue d’une tête sans aucune idée à l’intérieur… Car, outre les éclats de rire, ces entretiens sont aussi ponctués de silences. Silences qui donnent du souffle.