"...even though I find avant-garde Minimalism tiresome..."
I'll sue him myself for a remark like that one!
Cage a minimalist?!?!?!
Life in prison, buddy!
-=3DZacH=3D-
At 09:49 AM 9/28/02 -0500, you wrote:
>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
>
>
>To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
>
>
>
>
>Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/=
>
>
>
(=BA=B7.=B8(=A8*=B7.=B8 =B8.=B7*=A8)=B8.=B7=BA)
=AB.=B7 =B0 =B7. Zach .=B7 =B0 =B7.=BB
(=B8.=B7=BA(=B8.=B7=A8* *=A8=B7.=B8)=BA=B7.=B8)
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
|