It seems that CNN mistakenly reported that Mr. Batt lost the suit by
Peters Edition. Read on:
--------------------
The high cost of silence
--------------------
By Scott Timberg
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 27, 2002
What started out as a moment of silence has become drawn out and
noisy. Classical crossover artist Mike Batt hasn't run out of things
to say about the one minute of dead air he recorded as a cheeky
homage to composer John Cage -- a CD track that landed Batt in legal
trouble.
The silent moment, on the debut album of Batt's rock/classical group
the Planets, nods in the direction of a landmark 1952 Cage
composition called "4'33"," in which the composer asks the musicians
to play nothing for four minutes and 33 seconds. Batt called his
version "A One Minute Silence" and credited it to Batt/Cage. When
Cage's publishers in New York and London, Peters Edition, complained
and threatened to sue, a British copyright agency withheld some of
Batt's royalties. Batt said he laughed at first--but when the
copyright agency reversed itself and determined there had been no
infringement, he also thought he could laugh last. He staged a
musical duel of his silence and Cage's in London and, just this week,
released a single of "One Minute Silence."
"They didn't have a leg to stand on," Batt says from London. "So I
rang them up and said, 'Look, I want all the royalties back, but as a
gesture of sportsmanship, I will make a donation to the John Cage
Trust.' Because even though I've made fun of him, even though I find
avant-garde Minimalism tiresome, I do respect John Cage's particular
brand of humor. I would make a gesture, in the manner of a victor's
handshake, not in the manner of a beaten plagiarist. And we did agree
that we would not disclose the sum."
Neither the trust, which administers Cage's estate, nor Batt will
reveal the size of that gesture. Six figures has been reported, but,
Batt hints, that is far too high. Reports also said that Batt had
been sued and settled out of court, neither of which is true.
"I said publicly I'd cheerily go to jail if the British court ruled
that I was a plagiarist for recording a minute's worth of silence,"
says Batt, underlining that he made the donation of his own free
will. "My mother said, 'Which minute of the four minutes 33 do they
allege that you stole?' "
Says Nicholas Riddle, managing director of Peters Edition, "Cage
would find it fascinating that 50 years after the piece was first
composed we're still talking about it."
Copyright (c) 2002, The Los Angeles Times
--------------------
Improved archives!
Searching Chicagotribune.com archives back to 1985 is cheaper and
easier than ever. New prices for multiple articles can bring your
cost down to as low as 30 cents an article:
http://chicagotribune.com/archives
--
Paul Dickinson
Film/Video Teaching Associate
UIC School of Art and Design
312-996-0767
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
|