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John Cage and George Herbert Mead: The Unknown Influence of Van Meter Ames
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 August 2017
Abstract
As John Cage wrote in his book A Year from Monday, the “current use for art [is] giving instances of society suitable for social imitation—suitable because they show ways . . . people can do things without being told or telling others what to do.” Cage's ideal anarchic music emphasizes not only renouncing compositional control, but also the process of self-discovery happening to everyone, a process that leads participants to discover their creative abilities. This paper argues that Cage's penchant for self-discovery came from his understanding of George Herbert Mead's theories of the process of individuation (the “me” and the “I”). Cage discovered Mead through reading Zen and American Thought (1962) by his friend Van Meter Ames, a professor of philosophy at the University of Cincinnati, who saw the compatibility between Zen and Mead's concept of self in the capacity of the “I,” a phase of self whose unpredictable steps contribute to human innovation. Cage found the possibility of overthrowing the thought of the world through triggering a self-discovery of the “I” in everyone. He realized this idea in his happenings, such as 0’00”, by requiring performers to respond to the simple descriptions without specifying sound or duration.
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- Copyright © The Society for American Music 2017
References
References
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30 (1971): 39–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ames, Van Meter. “What Is Music?” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism
26 (1967): 241–49.Google Scholar
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33 (1959–60): 27–42.Google Scholar
Ames, Van Meter, and Ames, Betty. Japan and Zen. Cincinnati: University of Cincinnati, 1961.Google Scholar
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Cage, John. “Empty Words: John Cage Talks Back.” In Loka: A Journal from Naropa Institute, edited by Fields, Rick, 96–97. New York: Anchor, 1975.Google Scholar
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26 (1988): 6–25.Google Scholar
Cage, John. A Year from Monday: New Lectures and Writing by John Cage. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1969.Google Scholar
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Cage, John, and Retallack, Joan. Musicage: Cage Muses on Words, Art, Music. Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press, 1995.Google Scholar
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26 (1988): 26–49.Google Scholar
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Leonard, George. Into the Light of Things: The Art of the Commonplace from Wordsworth to John Cage. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994.Google Scholar
McHard, James L.
The Future of Modern Music: A Philosophical Exploration of Modernist Music in the 20th Century and Beyond. Livonia, MI: Iconic Press, 2008.Google Scholar
Mead, George Herbert, and Morris, Charles W.. Mind, Self & Society from the Standpoint of a Social Behaviorist. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1934.Google Scholar
Morgan, Robert P.
Twentieth-century Music: A History of Musical Style in Modern Europe and America. New York: W. W. Norton, 1991.Google Scholar
Patterson, David W. “Cage and Asia: History and Sources.” In The Cambridge Companion to John Cage, edited by Nicholls, David, 41–59. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.Google Scholar
Pritchett, James. “Cage, John.” In New Grove Online, edited by Laura Macy. http://www.grovemusic.com.Google Scholar
Revill, David. The Roaring Silence: John Cage, a Life. New York: Arcade Publishing, 1992.Google Scholar
Shultis, Christopher. Silencing the Sounded Self: John Cage and the American Experimental Tradition. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1998.Google Scholar
Silverman, Kenneth. Begin Again: A Biography of John Cage. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2010.Google Scholar
“Stone Walls Do Not a Prison Make, Nor Iron Bars, a Cage. . ..”
The Cincinnati Pictorial Enquirer, 9 July 1967.Google Scholar
Suzuki, Daisetz T. “Zen: A Reply to Van Meter Ames.” Philosophy East and West
5 (1956): 349–52.Google Scholar
Thoreau, Henry David. “Resistance to Civil Government.” In Aesthetic Papers, edited by Peabody, Elizabeth Palmer, 189–213. Boston: The Editor, 1849.Google Scholar
Watts, Alan. Buddhism: The Religion of No Religion. Rutland, VT: Tuttle Publishing, 1999.Google Scholar
Weedon, William S. “Review: Zen and American Thought by Van Meter Ames.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism
22 (1963): 83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yang, Serena. “John Cage and Van Meter Ames: Zen Buddhism, Friendship, and Cincinnati.” MM thesis, University of Cincinnati, 2013.Google Scholar
John Cage Correspondence, 1901–1993. Northwestern University Music Library. Northwestern University. Evanston, IL.Google Scholar
Peter Yates Papers. MSS 14. Special Collections & Archives. University of California San Diego Library.Google Scholar
Van Meter Ames Papers, 1966–1995 [VMAP]. UA–11–09, Archives and Rare Books Library. University of Cincinnati. Cincinnati, OH.Google Scholar
Ames, Van Meter. “Aesthetic Values in the East and West.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism
19 (1960): 3–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ames, Van Meter. “America, Existentialism, and Zen.” Philosophy East and West
1 (1951): 35–47.Google Scholar
Ames, Van Meter. “Current Western Interest in Zen.” Philosophy East and West
10 (1960): 23–33.Google Scholar
Ames, Van Meter. “From John Dewey to John Cage.” In Proceedings of the Sixth International Congress of Aesthetics, edited by Zeitler, Rudolf, 737–40. Uppsala: Universitetet, 1968.Google Scholar
Ames, Van Meter. “Is It Art?” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism
30 (1971): 39–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ames, Van Meter. “What Is Music?” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism
26 (1967): 241–49.Google Scholar
Ames, Van Meter. “Zen and American Philosophy.” Philosophy East and West
5 (1956): 305–20.Google Scholar
Ames, Van Meter. Zen and American Thought. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1962.Google Scholar
Ames, Van Meter. “Zen to Mead.” Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association
33 (1959–60): 27–42.Google Scholar
Ames, Van Meter, and Ames, Betty. Japan and Zen. Cincinnati: University of Cincinnati, 1961.Google Scholar
Bernstein, David W., and Hatch, Christopher, eds. Writings through John Cage's Music, Poetry, and Art. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001.Google Scholar
Bock, Jannika. Concord in Massachusetts, Discord in the World: The Writings of Henry Thoreau and John Cage. Frankfurt am Main: Lang, 2008.Google Scholar
Cage, John. “Empty Words: John Cage Talks Back.” In Loka: A Journal from Naropa Institute, edited by Fields, Rick, 96–97. New York: Anchor, 1975.Google Scholar
Cage, John. Empty Words: Writings ’73–’78. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1979.Google Scholar
Cage, John. Silence: Lectures and Writings. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1961.Google Scholar
Cage, John. “Tokyo Lecture and Three Mesostics.” Perspectives of New Music
26 (1988): 6–25.Google Scholar
Cage, John. A Year from Monday: New Lectures and Writing by John Cage. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1969.Google Scholar
Cage, John, and Lieberman, Fredric. “Contemporary Japanese Music: A Lecture.” In Locating East Asia in Western Art Music, edited by Everett, Yayoi Uno and Lau, Frederick, 193–98. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2004.Google Scholar
Cage, John, and Retallack, Joan. Musicage: Cage Muses on Words, Art, Music. Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press, 1995.Google Scholar
Cage, John, Kirby, Michael, and Schechner, Richard. “An Interview with John Cage.” The Tulane Drama Review
10 (1965): 50–72.Google Scholar
Currie, Hector, and Porte, Michael, eds. Cinema Now 1: Stan Brakhage, John Cage, Jonas Mekas, Stan Vanderbeek. Cincinnati: University of Cincinnati, 1968.Google Scholar
Detweiler, Robert. “Review: Zen and American Thought by Van Meter Ames.” American Quarterly
15 (1963): 219.Google Scholar
Dickinson, Peter. CageTalk: Dialogues with and about John Cage. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2006.Google Scholar
Duncan, Elmer H. “Van Meter Ames: An Examination and Appraisal of His Philosophy of Art.” Journal of Aesthetic Education
15 (1981): 97–113.Google Scholar
Fleming, Richard, and Duckworth, William, eds. John Cage at Sevenry-five. Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press, 1989.Google Scholar
Gann, Kyle. No Such Thing as Silence: John Cage's 4'33''. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010.Google Scholar
Gena, Peter, and Brent, Jonathan. A John Cage Reader: In Celebration of His 70th Birthday. New York: Peters, 1982.Google Scholar
Ginsburg, Horatio Wood. “John Cage Concludes Cincinnati Visit.” The [University of Cincinnati] Department of Psychiatry News and Reports
2, no. 4 (June 1967): 4.Google Scholar
Horosz, William. “Review: Zen and American Thought by Van Meter Ames.” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research
23 (1963): 455–56.Google Scholar
Johnson, Steven. The New York Schools of Music and Visual Arts: John Cage, Morton Feldman, Edgard Varèse, Willem De Kooning, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg. New York: Routledge, 2002.Google Scholar
Junkerman, Charles. “Modeling Anarchy: The Example of John Cage's Musicircus
.” Chicago Review
38, no. 4 (1993): 153–68.Google Scholar
Kahn, Douglas. “John Cage: Silence and Silencing.” The Musical Quarterly
81 (1997): 556–98.Google Scholar
Kostelanetz, Richard. “The Aesthetics of John Cage: A Composite Interview.” The Kenyon Review
9 (1987): 102–30.Google Scholar
Kostelanetz, Richard, and Cage, John. “His Own Music.” Perspectives of New Music
25 (1987): 88–106.Google Scholar
Kostelanetz, Richard, and Cage, John. “His Own Music: Part Two.” Perspectives of New Music
26 (1988): 26–49.Google Scholar
Larson, Kay. Where the Heart Beats: John Cage, Zen Buddhism, and the Inner Life of Artists. New York: Penguin Press, 2012.Google Scholar
Leonard, George. Into the Light of Things: The Art of the Commonplace from Wordsworth to John Cage. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994.Google Scholar
McHard, James L.
The Future of Modern Music: A Philosophical Exploration of Modernist Music in the 20th Century and Beyond. Livonia, MI: Iconic Press, 2008.Google Scholar
Mead, George Herbert, and Morris, Charles W.. Mind, Self & Society from the Standpoint of a Social Behaviorist. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1934.Google Scholar
Morgan, Robert P.
Twentieth-century Music: A History of Musical Style in Modern Europe and America. New York: W. W. Norton, 1991.Google Scholar
Patterson, David W. “Cage and Asia: History and Sources.” In The Cambridge Companion to John Cage, edited by Nicholls, David, 41–59. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.Google Scholar
Pritchett, James. “Cage, John.” In New Grove Online, edited by Laura Macy. http://www.grovemusic.com.Google Scholar
Revill, David. The Roaring Silence: John Cage, a Life. New York: Arcade Publishing, 1992.Google Scholar
Shultis, Christopher. Silencing the Sounded Self: John Cage and the American Experimental Tradition. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1998.Google Scholar
Silverman, Kenneth. Begin Again: A Biography of John Cage. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2010.Google Scholar
“Stone Walls Do Not a Prison Make, Nor Iron Bars, a Cage. . ..”
The Cincinnati Pictorial Enquirer, 9 July 1967.Google Scholar
Suzuki, Daisetz T. “Zen: A Reply to Van Meter Ames.” Philosophy East and West
5 (1956): 349–52.Google Scholar
Thoreau, Henry David. “Resistance to Civil Government.” In Aesthetic Papers, edited by Peabody, Elizabeth Palmer, 189–213. Boston: The Editor, 1849.Google Scholar
Watts, Alan. Buddhism: The Religion of No Religion. Rutland, VT: Tuttle Publishing, 1999.Google Scholar
Weedon, William S. “Review: Zen and American Thought by Van Meter Ames.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism
22 (1963): 83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yang, Serena. “John Cage and Van Meter Ames: Zen Buddhism, Friendship, and Cincinnati.” MM thesis, University of Cincinnati, 2013.Google Scholar