Age 40, year of the 'signature work': The cases of Cage, Reich and Adams

The 'signature works' of John Cage, Steve Reich and John Adams-4'33", Music for Eighteen Musicians and Nixon in China, respectively-are widely considered landmarks in recent American music and also parallel one another in a fascinating way, as the completion of each signature wor...

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Main Author: Kyle Fyr
Other Authors: Mahidol University
Format: Article
Published: 2018
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Online Access:https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/123456789/41662
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spelling th-mahidol.416622019-03-14T15:02:38Z Age 40, year of the 'signature work': The cases of Cage, Reich and Adams Kyle Fyr Mahidol University Arts and Humanities The 'signature works' of John Cage, Steve Reich and John Adams-4'33", Music for Eighteen Musicians and Nixon in China, respectively-are widely considered landmarks in recent American music and also parallel one another in a fascinating way, as the completion of each signature work dates from the year its composer turned forty. This article investigates the role of each signature work in its composer's stylistic development, studies the factors that led to the works' creation, discusses what made these works so innovative, and examines common threads among the three composers' career arcs in order to explore how their fortieth years became so pivotal in the context of their overall output. Is this age- related correspondence just an extraordinary coincidence or might it suggest broader correlations? Studies on age and creative achievement by psychologist Dean K. Simonton and others suggest that such correlations in fact exist and that the age of forty may be particularly significant, thus corroborating the significance of the intriguing age-related parallels among the careers of Cage, Reich and Adams. 2018-12-21T06:36:23Z 2019-03-14T08:02:38Z 2018-12-21T06:36:23Z 2019-03-14T08:02:38Z 2017-01-01 Article Malaysian Music Journal. Vol.6, No.1 (2017), 1-13 22321020 2-s2.0-85021989463 https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/123456789/41662 Mahidol University SCOPUS https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?partnerID=HzOxMe3b&scp=85021989463&origin=inward
institution Mahidol University
building Mahidol University Library
continent Asia
country Thailand
Thailand
content_provider Mahidol University Library
collection Mahidol University Institutional Repository
topic Arts and Humanities
spellingShingle Arts and Humanities
Kyle Fyr
Age 40, year of the 'signature work': The cases of Cage, Reich and Adams
description The 'signature works' of John Cage, Steve Reich and John Adams-4'33", Music for Eighteen Musicians and Nixon in China, respectively-are widely considered landmarks in recent American music and also parallel one another in a fascinating way, as the completion of each signature work dates from the year its composer turned forty. This article investigates the role of each signature work in its composer's stylistic development, studies the factors that led to the works' creation, discusses what made these works so innovative, and examines common threads among the three composers' career arcs in order to explore how their fortieth years became so pivotal in the context of their overall output. Is this age- related correspondence just an extraordinary coincidence or might it suggest broader correlations? Studies on age and creative achievement by psychologist Dean K. Simonton and others suggest that such correlations in fact exist and that the age of forty may be particularly significant, thus corroborating the significance of the intriguing age-related parallels among the careers of Cage, Reich and Adams.
author2 Mahidol University
author_facet Mahidol University
Kyle Fyr
format Article
author Kyle Fyr
author_sort Kyle Fyr
title Age 40, year of the 'signature work': The cases of Cage, Reich and Adams
title_short Age 40, year of the 'signature work': The cases of Cage, Reich and Adams
title_full Age 40, year of the 'signature work': The cases of Cage, Reich and Adams
title_fullStr Age 40, year of the 'signature work': The cases of Cage, Reich and Adams
title_full_unstemmed Age 40, year of the 'signature work': The cases of Cage, Reich and Adams
title_sort age 40, year of the 'signature work': the cases of cage, reich and adams
publishDate 2018
url https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/123456789/41662
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