Who was worse Cage or Stockhausen with his experimental music?
I was a student worker in the Music Library of the UIUC (University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana) back in the 60’s. John Cage was a visiting Professor in the Music Dept. and would frequently come to the Music Library to check out books, etc. He was a short guy (kind of reminds me a bit of Elton John) sometimes wore a beret-like hat, very affected, and smoked cigarettes using a fancy cigarette holder. Very eccentric, but was very nice to the very young me who did many of his check-outs.
Went to a couple of his “concerts” in the Music Hall, and he and some famous French, I believe, harpsichordist created a “happening” (this was late beatnik and the beginning of the hippy years) on campus that was held in the UIUC all concrete Assembly Hall, shaped just like a flying saucer (still there on campus I might add).
In the upper far recesses of the Assembly Hall tape recorders were placed making strange sounds all around the circular bldg. And then there was the famous harsichordist (a woman) playing in the middle of all this, dressed like a harlequin if memory serves me, along with other various placed harpsichord players and it was all most strange. As you walked into the Assembly Hall, there was a kaleidoscope of lights flashing, kind of a wind tunnel you walked through with colored gauzy scarf-like thingies swirling around you; it was kind of like running a gauntlet of flashing colored lights and gauze cloth whipping at you as you entered the Hall.
It was surreal, but I must admit rather fun in a totally chaotic, nonsensical way. The harpsichordist was very good though. UIUC had a rather large experimental music department at that time which is why John Cage was there to collaborate with his fellow experimental music colleagues.
The Music Dept. was chock full of eccentrics, both students and professors. There was one guy who was literally dismantling a small organ (or was it a harpsichord) and hiding the parts in the Music Bldg basement, taking it apart and removing the pieces to heaven knows where, one by one. He also would swipe music manuscripts, but got caught.
Everyone knew he was nuts (he used to parade down the main campus drag wearing kilts and playing the bagpipes, going in and out of stores and bars along the way). I think he ended up in the clink for a while, if memory serves me, but not for long as he was a certifiable loony bird. An excellent and very intelligent musician though. Those were interesting days.