Louis Guzzo’s 1962 review captures the atmosphere of a concert by John Cage and David Tudor during a period when they were making considerable use of amplification and improvisation. As was common in the reception of Cage and Tudor’s collaborations, Guzzo finds middlebrow comedy—specifically the comedian, pianist, and actor Jimmy Durante—as a helpful reference point for understanding the unusual, amplified sounds. The rhetoric of war and violence reminiscent of Antonin Artaud’s aesthetics appears as well. For Guzzo, the concert is as much a theatrical demonstration as it is a musical performance.
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| Title | “Cage’s Electronic Music Amazes and Amuses,” Seattle Times |
| Maker | Louis R. Guzzo |
| Date | 27 September 1962 |
| Type | press clipping |
| Location | Getty Research Institute, David Tudor Papers, 980039, box 63, folder 5 |
Cite
Guzzo, Louis R. “Cage’s Electronic Music Amazes and
Amuses,” Seattle Times, 27 September 1962.
Getty Research Institute, David Tudor Papers, 980039,
box 63, folder 5. 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.
https://
