This article provides an overview of John Cage’s discovery of mushrooms in the forests around the Gate Hill Cooperative in Stony Point, New York, where Cage lived in a communal setting with David Tudor, M. C. Richards, and Merce Cunningham. The article narrates Cage’s explosive independent interest in mushroom identification that culminated in an appearance on an Italian quiz show where he won a considerable sum of money. In 1959, Cage began to teach a course in mushroom identification at the New School for Social Research alongside his famed course in experimental composition that had attracted many aspiring avant-garde artists who were not necessarily musicians.
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| Title | “Little Thing Like Mushroom Can Change Destiny,” Oregon Journal |
| Maker | Edward Cannel |
| Date | 5 July 1959 |
| Type | press clipping |
| Location | Getty Research Institute, M.C. Richards Papers, 960036, box 150, folder 7 |
Cite
Cannel, Edward. “Little Thing Like Mushroom Can Change
Destiny,” Oregon Journal, 5 July 1959. Getty
Research Institute, M.C. Richards Papers, 960036, box
150, folder 7. In
The Scores Project: Experimental Notation in Music,
Art, Poetry, and Dance, 1950–1975, ed. Michael Gallope, Natilee Harren, and John
Hicks. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2025.
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