John Cage and Peter Yates
Correspondence on Music Criticism and Aesthetics

The last - and largest - of Cage's most important formative exchanges of letters, discussing music criticism and questions of aesthetics.

Martin Iddon (Author)

9781108703178, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 24 March 2022

330 pages
24.4 x 16.9 x 1.8 cm, 0.559 kg

'This is the third book that Martin Iddon has contributed to Arnold Whittall's influential series at Cambridge University Press … Iddon is a footnote virtuoso where every individual mentioned is given full details - helpfully on the page - and there are many examples of ingenious investigation.' Peter Dickinson, Musical Opinion

The correspondence between composer John Cage and Peter Yates represents the third and final part of Cage's most significant exchanges of letters, following those with Pierre Boulez and with David Tudor. Martin Iddon's book is the first volume to collect the complete extant correspondence with his critical friend, thus completing the 'trilogy' of Cage correspondence published by Cambridge. By bringing together more than 100 letters, beginning in 1940 and continuing until 1971, Iddon reveals the dialogue within which many of Cage's ideas were first forged and informed, with particular focus on his developing attitudes to music criticism and aesthetics. The correspondence with Yates represents precisely, in alignment with Cage's fastidious neatness, the part of his letter writing in which he engages most directly with the last part of his famous tricolon, 'composing's one thing, performing's another, listening's a third'.

Introduction
1. John Cage to Peter Yates, undated [1940?]
2. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1940
3. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1941
4. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1941
John Cage, 'Organized Sound' draft, 1941
Peter Yates, 'Organized Sound,' California Arts and Architecture (1941)
5. John Cage to Peter Yates, undated [1941]
6. John Cage to Peter Yates, undated [ca. 1947]
7. John Cage to Peter Yates, undated [ca. 1947]
8. John Cage to Peter Yates, undated [ca. September 1948]
Peter Yates, 'Music,' Arts and Architecture (1948)
9. John Cage to Peter Yates, undated [ca. 1948
Peter Yates, 'Music,' Arts and Architecture (1948)
Peter Yates, 'Music,' Arts and Architecture (1948)
10. John Cage to Peter Yates, undated [ca. 1948]
11. John Cage to Peter Yates, undated [ca. 1948]
12. John Cage to Peter Yates, undated [early 1949]
Peter Yates, 'Music,' Arts and Architecture (1949)
13. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1953
Peter Yates, 'Music,' Arts and Architecture (1953)
14. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1953
15. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1953
Peter Yates, 'Pierre Boulez,' Arts and Architecture (1957)
Peter Yates, 'A Collage of American Composers - Part 3,' Arts and Architecture (1959)
Peter Yates, 'A Collage of American Composers - Part 4,' Arts and Architecture (1959)
16. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1959
17. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1959
18. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1959
19. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1959
Peter Yates, 'Virgil Thomson and Horatio Parker,' Arts and Architecture (1959)
20. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1959
21. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1959
22. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1959
23. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1960
24. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1960
25. John Cage to Peter Yates, undated [ca. 1960]
Peter Yates, 'Two Albums by John Cage - Part 1,' Arts and Architecture (1960)
26. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1960
27. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1960
28. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1960
Peter Yates, 'Two Albums by John Cage - Part 2,' Arts and Architecture (1960)
29. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1960
30. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1960
31. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1960
32. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1960
33. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1960
34. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1960
35. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1960
36. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1960
37. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1960
38. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1960
39. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1960
Peter Yates, 'Monday Mad on Tuesday,' Arts and Architecture (1960)
Peter Yates, 'Music,' Arts and Architecture (1960)
40. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1961
41. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1961
Peter Yates, 'American Experimental Tradition,' unpublished manuscript [ca. 1961]
42. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1961
43. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1961
44. John Cage to Peter Yates, undated [1961]
45. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1961
46. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1961
47. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1961
48. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1961
49. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1961
Peter Yates and John Whitney, 'Notes for Music,' unpublished manuscript [1961]
Peter Yates, 'Sound,' manuscript [1961]
50. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1961
51. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1961
52. Peter Yates to John Cage, 1961
Peter Yates, 'A Lost Center,' manuscript [1961]
53. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1961
54. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1961
Peter Yates, 'A General Report,' Arts and Architecture (1962)
55. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1962
56. John Cage to Peter Yates, 1962
Peter Yates, 'Silence by John Cage,' Arts and Architecture (1962)
Peter Yates, review of John Cage, Silence, Notes: the Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association (1962)
Peter Yates, 'More Than Time,' Arts and Architecture (1962)
Peter Yates, 'John Cage's Weekend in Los Angeles,' Arts and Architecture (1962)
57. John Cage to Frances and Peter Yates, 1962
Peter Yates, 'The American Artist,' manuscript written for the

Subject Areas: Diaries, letters & journals [BJ], Individual composers & musicians, specific bands & groups [AVH], 20th century & contemporary classical music [AVGC6], Music reviews & criticism [AVC]