John Cage and George Herbert Mead: The Unknown Influence of Van Meter Ames

SERENA YANG

doi:10.1017/S1752196317000244

John Cage and George Herbert Mead: The Unknown Influence of Van Meter Ames

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 August 2017

SERENA YANG

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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.

Type: Research Article
Information: Journal of the Society for American Music , Volume 11 , Issue 3 , August 2017 , pp. 354 - 369

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1752196317000244 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Society for American Music 2017

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