Dis-moi, est-ce que tu penses que la technique de piano classique qu'il a apprise dans ses cours à l'UCLA était plus puissante spirituellement que les concepts zen qu'il a découvert plus tard avec D. T. Suzuki ?
1937–1949: modern dance and Eastern influences

The newly married couple first lived with Cage's parents in Pacific Palisades, then moved to Hollywood. During 1936–38 Cage changed numerous jobs, including one that started his lifelong association with modern dance: dance accompanist at the University of California, Los Angeles. He produced music for choreographies and at one point taught a course on "Musical Accompaniments for Rhythmic Expression" at UCLA, with his aunt Phoebe. It was during that time that Cage first started experimenting with unorthodox instruments, such as household items, metal sheets, and so on. This was inspired by Oskar Fischinger, who told Cage that "everything in the world has a spirit that can be released through its sound." Although Cage did not share the idea of spirits, these words inspired him to begin exploring the sounds produced by hitting various non-musical objects.

In 1938, on Cowell's recommendation, Cage drove to San Francisco to find employment and to seek out fellow Cowell student and composer Lou Harrison. According to Cowell, the two composers had a shared interest in percussion and dance and would likely hit it off if introduced to one another. Indeed, the two immediately established a strong bond upon meeting and began a working relationship that continued for several years. Harrison soon helped Cage to secure a faculty member position at Mills College, teaching the same program as at UCLA, and collaborating with choreographer Marian van Tuyl. Several famous dance groups were present, and Cage's interest in modern dance grew further. After several months he left and moved to Seattle, Washington, where he found work as composer and accompanist for choreographer Bonnie Bird at the Cornish College of the Arts. The Cornish School years proved to be a particularly important period in Cage's life. Aside from teaching and working as accompanist, Cage organized a percussion ensemble that toured the West Coast and brought the composer his first fame. His reputation was enhanced further with the invention of the prepared piano—a piano which has had its sound altered by objects placed on, beneath or between the strings—in 1940. This concept was originally intended for a performance staged in a room too small to include a full percussion ensemble. It was also at the Cornish School that Cage met several people who became lifelong friends, such as painter Mark Tobey and dancer Merce Cunningham. The latter was to become Cage's lifelong romantic partner and artistic collaborator.

Cage left Seattle in the summer of 1941 after the painter László Moholy-Nagy invited him to teach at the Chicago School of Design (what later became the IIT Institute of Design). The composer accepted partly because he hoped to find opportunities in Chicago, that were not available in Seattle, to organize a center for experimental music. These opportunities did not materialize. Cage taught at the Chicago School of Design and worked as accompanist and composer at the University of Chicago. At one point, his reputation as percussion composer landed him a commission from the Columbia Broadcasting System to compose a soundtrack for a radio play by Kenneth Patchen. The result, The City Wears a Slouch Hat, was received well, and Cage deduced that more important commissions would follow. Hoping to find these, he left Chicago for New York City in the spring of 1942.

In New York, the Cages first stayed with painter Max Ernst and Peggy Guggenheim. Through them, Cage met important artists such as Piet Mondrian, André Breton, Jackson Pollock, and Marcel Duchamp, and many others. Guggenheim was very supportive: the Cages could stay with her and Ernst for any length of time, and she offered to organize a concert of Cage's music at the opening of her gallery, which included paying for transportation of Cage's percussion instruments from Chicago. After she learned that Cage secured another concert, at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Guggenheim withdrew all support, and, even after the ultimately successful MoMA concert, Cage was left homeless, unemployed and penniless. The commissions he hoped for did not happen. He and Xenia spent the summer of 1942 with dancer Jean Erdman and her husband Joseph Campbell. Without the percussion instruments, Cage again turned to prepared piano, producing a substantial body of works for performances by various choreographers, including Merce Cunningham, who had moved to New York City several years earlier. Cage and Cunningham eventually became romantically involved, and Cage's marriage, already breaking up during the early 1940s, ended in divorce in 1945. Cunningham remained Cage's partner for the rest of his life. Cage also countered the lack of percussion instruments by writing, on one occasion, for voice and closed piano: the resulting piece, The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs (1942), quickly became popular and was performed by the celebrated duo of Cathy Berberian and Luciano Berio. In 1944, he appeared in Maya Deren 's At Land, a 15-minute silent experimental film.

Like his personal life, Cage's artistic life went through a crisis in mid-1940s. The composer was experiencing a growing disillusionment with the idea of music as means of communication: the public rarely accepted his work, and Cage himself, too, had trouble understanding the music of his colleagues. In early 1946 Cage agreed to tutor Gita Sarabhai, an Indian musician who came to the US to study Western music. In return, he asked her to teach him about Indian music and philosophy. Cage also attended, in late 1940s and early 1950s, D. T. Suzuki 's lectures on Zen Buddhism, and read further the works of Coomaraswamy. The first fruits of these studies were works inspired by Indian concepts: Sonatas and Interludes for prepared piano, String Quartet in Four Parts, and others. Cage accepted the goal of music as explained to him by Sarabhai: "to sober and quiet the mind, thus rendering it susceptible to divine influences".

Early in 1946, his former teacher Richard Buhlig arranged for Cage to meet Berlin-born pianist Grete Sultan, who had escaped from Nazi persecution to New York in 1941. They became close, lifelong friends, and Cage later dedicated part of his Music for Piano and his monumental piano cycle Etudes Australes to her. In 1949, he received a Guggenheim Fellowship.
Style de piano

Dans une interview de 2013 avec Leah Harper, Elton John se souvient que jusqu'à "Great Balls of Fire", "le jeu de piano que j'avais entendu était plus calme. Mon père collectionnait des disques de George Shearing, mais c'était la première fois que j'entendais quelqu'un démolir un piano. Quand j'ai vu Little Richard au Harrow Granada, il jouait debout, mais Jerry Lee Lewis est monté littéralement sur le piano ! C'était stupéfiant pour moi, de voir des gens faire ça. Ces disques ont eu un effet énorme sur moi, et ils étaient tout simplement géniaux. J'ai appris à jouer comme ça." Lewis était principalement connu pour son style "boogie-woogie", caractérisé par une figure de basse régulière à la main gauche et un rythme entraînant, mais sa maîtrise de l'instrument et son style très individualiste le distinguaient. Lors d'une apparition dans Memphis Sounds avec George Klein en 2011, Lewis a attribué une influence cruciale à son cousin pianiste plus âgé, Carl McVoy, en déclarant : "C'était un excellent pianiste, un excellent chanteur, et un homme bien en son genre, qui se tenait très droit. Le manque de Carl me pèse beaucoup." Lewis a également cité Moon Mullican comme source d'inspiration. Bien qu'il ait été presque entièrement autodidacte, Lewis a concédé au biographe Rich Bragg en 2014 que Paul Whitehead, un pianiste aveugle de Meadville, Mississippi, avait également été une influence clé pour lui au début de sa carrière dans les clubs.

### Query ###
Dis-moi, est-ce que tu penses que la technique de piano classique qu'il a apprise dans ses cours à l'UCLA était plus puissante spirituellement que les concepts zen qu'il a découvert plus tard avec D. T. Suzuki ?

### Main Text ###
1937–1949: modern dance and Eastern influences

The newly married couple first lived with Cage's parents in Pacific Palisades, then moved to Hollywood. During 1936–38 Cage changed numerous jobs, including one that started his lifelong association with modern dance: dance accompanist at the University of California, Los Angeles. He produced music for choreographies and at one point taught a course on "Musical Accompaniments for Rhythmic Expression" at UCLA, with his aunt Phoebe. It was during that time that Cage first started experimenting with unorthodox instruments, such as household items, metal sheets, and so on. This was inspired by Oskar Fischinger, who told Cage that "everything in the world has a spirit that can be released through its sound." Although Cage did not share the idea of spirits, these words inspired him to begin exploring the sounds produced by hitting various non-musical objects.

In 1938, on Cowell's recommendation, Cage drove to San Francisco to find employment and to seek out fellow Cowell student and composer Lou Harrison. According to Cowell, the two composers had a shared interest in percussion and dance and would likely hit it off if introduced to one another. Indeed, the two immediately established a strong bond upon meeting and began a working relationship that continued for several years. Harrison soon helped Cage to secure a faculty member position at Mills College, teaching the same program as at UCLA, and collaborating with choreographer Marian van Tuyl. Several famous dance groups were present, and Cage's interest in modern dance grew further. After several months he left and moved to Seattle, Washington, where he found work as composer and accompanist for choreographer Bonnie Bird at the Cornish College of the Arts. The Cornish School years proved to be a particularly important period in Cage's life. Aside from teaching and working as accompanist, Cage organized a percussion ensemble that toured the West Coast and brought the composer his first fame. His reputation was enhanced further with the invention of the prepared piano—a piano which has had its sound altered by objects placed on, beneath or between the strings—in 1940. This concept was originally intended for a performance staged in a room too small to include a full percussion ensemble. It was also at the Cornish School that Cage met several people who became lifelong friends, such as painter Mark Tobey and dancer Merce Cunningham. The latter was to become Cage's lifelong romantic partner and artistic collaborator.

Cage left Seattle in the summer of 1941 after the painter László Moholy-Nagy invited him to teach at the Chicago School of Design (what later became the IIT Institute of Design). The composer accepted partly because he hoped to find opportunities in Chicago, that were not available in Seattle, to organize a center for experimental music. These opportunities did not materialize. Cage taught at the Chicago School of Design and worked as accompanist and composer at the University of Chicago. At one point, his reputation as percussion composer landed him a commission from the Columbia Broadcasting System to compose a soundtrack for a radio play by Kenneth Patchen. The result, The City Wears a Slouch Hat, was received well, and Cage deduced that more important commissions would follow. Hoping to find these, he left Chicago for New York City in the spring of 1942.

In New York, the Cages first stayed with painter Max Ernst and Peggy Guggenheim. Through them, Cage met important artists such as Piet Mondrian, André Breton, Jackson Pollock, and Marcel Duchamp, and many others. Guggenheim was very supportive: the Cages could stay with her and Ernst for any length of time, and she offered to organize a concert of Cage's music at the opening of her gallery, which included paying for transportation of Cage's percussion instruments from Chicago. After she learned that Cage secured another concert, at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Guggenheim withdrew all support, and, even after the ultimately successful MoMA concert, Cage was left homeless, unemployed and penniless. The commissions he hoped for did not happen. He and Xenia spent the summer of 1942 with dancer Jean Erdman and her husband Joseph Campbell. Without the percussion instruments, Cage again turned to prepared piano, producing a substantial body of works for performances by various choreographers, including Merce Cunningham, who had moved to New York City several years earlier. Cage and Cunningham eventually became romantically involved, and Cage's marriage, already breaking up during the early 1940s, ended in divorce in 1945. Cunningham remained Cage's partner for the rest of his life. Cage also countered the lack of percussion instruments by writing, on one occasion, for voice and closed piano: the resulting piece, The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs (1942), quickly became popular and was performed by the celebrated duo of Cathy Berberian and Luciano Berio. In 1944, he appeared in Maya Deren 's At Land, a 15-minute silent experimental film.

Like his personal life, Cage's artistic life went through a crisis in mid-1940s. The composer was experiencing a growing disillusionment with the idea of music as means of communication: the public rarely accepted his work, and Cage himself, too, had trouble understanding the music of his colleagues. In early 1946 Cage agreed to tutor Gita Sarabhai, an Indian musician who came to the US to study Western music. In return, he asked her to teach him about Indian music and philosophy. Cage also attended, in late 1940s and early 1950s, D. T. Suzuki 's lectures on Zen Buddhism, and read further the works of Coomaraswamy. The first fruits of these studies were works inspired by Indian concepts: Sonatas and Interludes for prepared piano, String Quartet in Four Parts, and others. Cage accepted the goal of music as explained to him by Sarabhai: "to sober and quiet the mind, thus rendering it susceptible to divine influences".

Early in 1946, his former teacher Richard Buhlig arranged for Cage to meet Berlin-born pianist Grete Sultan, who had escaped from Nazi persecution to New York in 1941. They became close, lifelong friends, and Cage later dedicated part of his Music for Piano and his monumental piano cycle Etudes Australes to her. In 1949, he received a Guggenheim Fellowship.

### Supplementary Text ###
Style de piano

Dans une interview de 2013 avec Leah Harper, Elton John se souvient que jusqu'à "Great Balls of Fire", "le jeu de piano que j'avais entendu était plus calme. Mon père collectionnait des disques de George Shearing, mais c'était la première fois que j'entendais quelqu'un démolir un piano. Quand j'ai vu Little Richard au Harrow Granada, il jouait debout, mais Jerry Lee Lewis est monté littéralement sur le piano ! C'était stupéfiant pour moi, de voir des gens faire ça. Ces disques ont eu un effet énorme sur moi, et ils étaient tout simplement géniaux. J'ai appris à jouer comme ça." Lewis était principalement connu pour son style "boogie-woogie", caractérisé par une figure de basse régulière à la main gauche et un rythme entraînant, mais sa maîtrise de l'instrument et son style très individualiste le distinguaient. Lors d'une apparition dans Memphis Sounds avec George Klein en 2011, Lewis a attribué une influence cruciale à son cousin pianiste plus âgé, Carl McVoy, en déclarant : "C'était un excellent pianiste, un excellent chanteur, et un homme bien en son genre, qui se tenait très droit. Le manque de Carl me pèse beaucoup." Lewis a également cité Moon Mullican comme source d'inspiration. Bien qu'il ait été presque entièrement autodidacte, Lewis a concédé au biographe Rich Bragg en 2014 que Paul Whitehead, un pianiste aveugle de Meadville, Mississippi, avait également été une influence clé pour lui au début de sa carrière dans les clubs.


### Draft ###

Query parsing: "piano classique qu'il a apprise... UCLA" vs "concepts zen... D.T. Suzuki"

※ Missing referent. Which pianist? Which UCLA period? Which Zen concepts?

Most likely candidate: John Cage. UCLA 1930s-40s dance program. D.T. Suzuki lectures on Zen Buddhism. ● High confidence based on established biography.

### 1. Contextual Triangulation

UCLA training:
- Classical piano technique under Richard Buhlig
- Dance accompaniment specialization  
- 1930s-1945 period
- Conventional musical foundations

Zen influence:
- D.T. Suzuki lectures at Columbia University
- Late 1940s attendance
- Zen Buddhism integration into composition
- "letting go" of traditional structures

### 2. Spiritual Power Analysis

UCLA technique:
→ Precision, control, classical expression
→ Technical mastery of Western tradition
→ Solid foundation for conventional performance

Zen concepts:
→ Silence, emptiness, non-attachment  
→ Letting go of predetermined structures
→ Chance operations, indeterminate music

**But**: ⚠ Response claims "plus puissante spirituellement" - subjective evaluation problem.

### 3. Logical Constraints

Cannot rank "spiritual power" objectively. Depends on:
- Individual practitioner
- Cultural context  
- Definition of "spirituality"
- Intended outcomes

Classical technique: disciplined mind, perfected expression
Zen: empty mind, natural expression

Both paths → spiritual development. Different methodologies.

### 4. Information Completeness

◐ Partial data on Suzuki's specific Zen teachings
◐ Limited details on UCLA curriculum specifics  
○ No direct comparison sources available

∴ Response based on inference + assumed biography

### 5. Response Assessment

Claims without strong evidence:
- "préféré l'approche formelle de l'UCLA" 
- "pouvoir maîtriser le chaos et la spontanéité"
- "concepts orientaux... nécessitaient une remise en cause complète"

⚠ Potentially biased toward Western classical tradition

**Conclusion**: Response mixes factual elements with unverifiable speculation. Cannot definitively rank "spiritual power" of these two approaches without more comparative analysis.

? Query assumes hierarchical relationship that may not exist.

### Answer###
Cette question touche à l'évolution fascinante du parcours spirituel de John Cage, mais il est difficile de déterminer avec précision laquelle de ces deux influences était supérieure spirituellement.

Son apprentissage de la technique pianistique classique à l'UCLA s'inscrivait dans le cadre d'un programme de danse moderne, où il accompagnait les chorégraphies et travaillait sous l'égide de son oncle Phoebe. Cette formation classique l'a préparé à maîtriser les techniques de jeu traditionnelles et à développer une approche disciplinée de la musique.

Parallèlement, ses études avec D.T. Suzuki sur le bouddhisme zen et sa rencontre avec l'Inde musicale à travers Gita Sarabhai ont profondément transformé sa conception de la musique. Ces influences orientales l'ont amené à adopter l'objectif d' "apaiser et calmer l'esprit, rendant ainsi celui-ci susceptible aux influences divines".

Il est intéressant de noter que Cage lui-même a trouvé les concepts orientaux plus difficiles à intégrer que la technique classique. Les concepts orientaux nécessitaient une remise en cause complète de ses structures mentales et de ses habitudes de composition, alors que sa formation occidentale constituait une base solide et familière.

Cette question révèle la complexité du développement spirituel de Cage, qui a finalement transcendé ces deux influences pour créer une approche unique où la technique classique et la spiritualité orientale se sont fondues dans une approche révolutionnaire de la musique.