John Cage: Shitty Ear-Training Teacher.

I could not help but be amused by Mark N. Grant's recent article on newmusicbox.org. I am providing a link to the article, and my posted response is also presented below.

-Mark
***
http://www.newmusicbox.org/chatter/chatter.nmbx?id=5403
***

I fail to see -- considering his prolific output -- how John Cage's "inadequate" ear or occasional "faulty harmonic analysis" -- matters in the least. The man was a composer, after all, and not a theory professor.

I will submit that the method of listening taught in traditional ear-training courses does not necessarily correlate with the way a composers hears his own music during the process of creation.

Experience has taught me that while you can improve your ear, there is only so much you can do before you come up against the wall of natural ability.

Are the many fine composers who struggle with their ears -- or dislike the pedantic elements of theory -- simply playing the part of charlatans or impostors?

Art transcends method. Practice begets theory, not the other way around. We should work to improve our "chops," but history is witness enough that pedantry does not generally lead to great creative output.

If my response seems reactionary, it is only because I cannot help but recoil at an article which would suppose to label the deficits in a composer's "gifts," as if John Cage or Ravel had some responsibility to also be a good theorist.