Description
John Cage is best known as a revolutionary composer who expanded the definition of music to include sound, silence, and chance. But while he was working on his art, Cage couldn’t stop thinking about mushrooms. MoMA assistant curator Alison Burstein, Cage scholars and fellow foragers Howard Risati and Ray Kass, and host Naeem Douglas discuss Cage’s groundbreaking compositions and his obsession with the enigmatic fungi, which even led to his appearance on a game show.
This is episode 2 of MoMA’s new podcast "The Secret Lives of Artists," which tells the stories you don’t know about the artists you think you do. Each concise episode explores the secret talents and obsessive pursuits of some of our favorite modern artists. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.
0:00 - Cold open
0:54 - Theme Music and Introduction
1:40 - John Cage’s Eclectic Music Influence
2:46 - 4’33”
5:02 Cage on Music
5:56 Cage’s Influence
6:13 Let’s Go Foraging
7:29 Mr. Cage Goes to Italy
8:40 I’ve Got A Secret
9:23 Mushroom Mania
10:50 The Wrong Mushroom
11:24 Merging His Two Loves
13:00 What Would John Cage Think of…
13:38 Closing and credits
Thumbnail - John Cage foraging at Stony Point, 1965. Photograph: William Gedney/Courtesy of the William Gedeney Photographs and Papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Contains excerpts from “I’ve Got a Secret” (1960), Écoute (1992), directed by Miroslav Sebestik and Anna Grange and John Cage: I Have Nothing to Say and I Am Saying It (1990), directed by Alan Miller.
Host: Naeem Douglas
Executive producers: Prudence Peiffer, Alex Halberstadt, Naeem Douglas
Writing and research: Prudence Peiffer, Alex Halberstadt, Naeem Douglas with additional research by Caroline Nieto.
Engineered and mixed by Zubin Hensler
Original score by Pablo Altar
Special thanks to The Secret Lives of Artists guests as well as: Jason Persse; Sara Bodinson, Arlette Hernandez; Maude Campbell; Kyla Mathis-Angress; Stina Sawdust; our Marketing colleagues and our AV technicians.
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The comments and opinions expressed in this video are those of the speaker alone, and do not represent the views of The Museum of Modern Art, its personnel, or any artist.
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