the music here is devoid of the spirit and there is little of anything to provide recuperation, for everything is wrong. We went to visit a beautiful church and a movie was being made in it. ISCM luncheons in Benedictine cloisters! But now with your letter all seems changed and this is only a state preceding beauty. How easily one can forget (!) especially when plumbing is non-existent and food in some mysterious way poisonous.
I have had several talks with Panufnik, and find him very sensitive and charming. I looked at his scores and explained mine to him (he said he would not sleep that night).
So far in the festival: a magnificent performance of Pierrot Lunaire by Marya Freund (74 yrs. old)157 and a beautiful piano piece by Wladriner [?] Woronoff (a 12-tone white Russian living in Belgium).158 He is exciting because he studies poetry and has derived a rhythmic structure (in this piece) from the sonnet. Unfortunately, few heard the piece in the spirit I did.
The news about the Guggenheim is alarming and I am miserable that I am the only one of the friends to get it. I can’t believe that Alan didn’t get it. He is, fortunately, born an Armenian, however.
Your wildest intuitions about this festival could not equal what actually takes place. Programs are printed but take place other ways and other times. Midnight surprise concerts when everyone is overcome with fatigue. It is a kind of devilish magic stunt: music pulled out of a hat before or after one can Luigi Dallapiccola. Instead of India why not stay in N.Y.? Maggie should get herself posted in N.Y. I leave here to go to Milan for the “First Congress for Dodecaphonic Music.”159 I rather think it will be interesting. Out of these ashes? Why doesn’t someone start understanding Satie? Merton Brown has written a beautiful new piano piece. [Rudolf] Escher, of course, and maybe Victor Legley,160 a Belgian again.
I long so soon to be home again. The audiences here are getting smaller: people leaving because there is quite clearly nothing nourishing. Mr. Clark is a kind of idiot-king and his wife is a scarecrow. The Pit was ghastly. I find Mr. Gradowitz from Israel very fine,—we agreed that the ISCM should dissolve if it can only do this. He wants the next year’s festivities to take place in Tel-Aviv,—which would be conveniently near Egypt and India.
But it looks like the U.S.A. is out again next year, for “our differences” cannot be settled unless delegates arrive to settle them.
Europe is not a place now for societies. I remember with delight our meeting at Henry Cowell’s. But why not keep the money for Alan and you and Lou? These are all supported one way or another by their governments.
To John Cage Sr. and Lucretia Cage
May 17, 1949 | Paris
Dearest Mother and Dad:
Just finished writing the article for Musical America which turned out to be difficult for me to write,161 so that I have not done any other writing until it was finished, and so you must forgive me for not sending a letter sooner. I am still rushed because being back in Paris and beginning to meet lots of people takes very much time and is exhausting. I got all your letters at the Express office yesterday and it took many pleasant hours to read them and thank you for all V[irgil] T[homson]’s articles and all the news. The weather here is cold and damp, but Paris is so beautiful it’s practically like being home again. I have little regard for Italy and travelling there was so unpleasant. I missed The Last Supper in Milan because the 12-tone Congress took all my time. My two new suits are beautiful, but unpressed right now because I had to stuff them into suitcases the moment I got them. Have met a marvelous old Baron through Maggie Nogueira here in Paris who knew Satie, Virgil and knows everybody, and he is a magnificent person, poor as Job’s turkey but full of a marvelous quietness and wit.162 Sonya163 is here now and I had a telegram from Gita who is coming. Bob and Arthur are playing one of my Dances on the 24th of June at the Salle Gaveau, and lots of people are trying to wrangle private premieres of both my music and Merce’s dancing, a kind of social war to see who sees us first; it will probably result in no one doing anything. I had a nice letter from the Guggenheim people saying everything was fine and they would give me the Fellowship when I come back or whenever I want it, but that it should be when I can settle down and work for a clear year. The Herald-Tribune sent me a letter so that I can get free tickets to anything in Europe, and I received a copy of the Tiger’s Eye and was pleased to see the article looking printed.164 I am going to try to get it translated and published here too. There are lots of friends here; Matta is here and having a show.165 Muriel Errera and her husband, Maggie Dunham, Edwin Denby and his brother and his wife; it’s practically NYC. Sonya is living in a marvelously beautiful place near the Palais Royal but may move into our hotel which is cheap and on the Ile de St. Louis, where we stayed before. We go to the same restaurant every day and have our napkins saved there in a box on the wall; the Baron goes there too. The sun is just coming out now and last night the Seine was beautiful with a slight drizzle coming down so that you didn’t need a rain-coat. Notre Dame, everything is marvelous. I’m very happy and so glad to be away from Italy which is so money-conscious and full of ruins. In Paris everything is used, but in Rome you just look at it. I played in the [American] Academy and they had a very fancy party for everybody, a buffet dinner before the concert and then the Lord sent a hail-storm for a dramatic prelude and afterwards everything was quiet, and I think many liked the music, but one Italian lady laughed all the way through. The next day there was another concert by Andor Foldes166 at the Academy, and many people had heard about my music during the day and wished they had been invited. I met the American Ambassador, and he was wearing a suit just like one I had ordered. Maggie Nogueira is going to come down from Amsterdam for the concert in June. This isn’t a very good letter, but I have to go to lunch now and will write much more often now because I don’t have to write any more articles for magazines. Did the Tribune articles appear?
To John Cage Sr. and Lucretia Cage
May 20, 1949 | Paris
Dearest Mother and Dad:
Just got your new letter with the picture of the cats in it. They must be charming, and I suppose you will know how to keep them from being too troublesome later on. Good luck! And thank you for sending the Herald-T[ribune]. article because by comparing it with what I wrote I am able to learn a great deal about reviewing. They only cut out four words and part of one sentence; they were the places I became sentimental. I praised the Schoenberg work very highly after the comma which is the end of the article. I’ve heard about Olin Downes’ criticism of the Sonatas but rather enjoy his disliking them so intensely.167 Yesterday Merce and I gave a party for Edwin Denby’s brother and wife, the Baron Mollet whom I described in the last letter, David Dana, who is Maggie Nogueira’s son, Matta, Sonya and another girl whose name I don’t know. The whole party cost about $1, downstairs in the bar, and everybody had anything they wanted to order. Wine and liquor are very cheap here. Champagne costs about $1 a bottle, but I haven’t had any yet. After the party a French composer, Maurice Roche,168 came along and we had dinner with Matta and Sonya and then went to see two surrealist plays that were marvelously acted in a little theater near St. Germain des Pres. Afterwards we walked through the Palais Royal with Sonya to her hotel. This morning I went around to agents and theaters with my letter from the Tribune saying I wanted tickets free for the Press, and they gave them to me; I can go free to anything. It’s quite a marvelous feeling. Tonight for instance I hear the Poulenc-Fournier169 concert and a first performance of Poulenc’s new cello sonata. Also in the course of the day I found two pieces of Satie that I didn’t have, and you can imagine what a pleasure that was. Merce visited the Dance Archives here. We found two museums, one of Asiatic art and the other of early movies, but there wasn’t time to enjoy them. Tonight I think I’ll wear my new suit. Today when I was sitting in a cafe I began to think about new music and had some ideas. It will be such a pleasure to get to work when I do. The boat we have reservations on, but no places, is not going to sail in November so we may have the whole thing switched from the Holland-America Line to the French Line and sail on either the De Grasse or the Ile de France in October. Also I had my hair cut today and tomorrow will take a bath around the corner. The bath house is only open Thursday through Sunday. Merce has