John Cage And Modern Music

Throughout this course, the composers we studied all had different approached to creating music, and that is why many of them are well known today. The three most notable composers who combine unusual elements in their music were Frank Zappa, John Cage, and Pamela Z.

Milton Babbitt and John Cage were both composers who played pivotal roles in the post-World War II Avant Garde music scene and in the pioneering of electronic music. Both composers found their roots and were greatly influenced by German-Jewish composer Arnold Schoenberg, however they both adopted different viewpoints on the relationship between a composer and their audience . Babbitt believed that a composer or creator did not have an obligation to please his or her audience, and that his pieces were intended mostly for professionals capable of understanding the context and intention of his music. Cage on the other hand granted his audience more power and influence, believing that music was a platform on which audiences could utilize their creativity to adopt new ways of perceiving and being aware of the world around them. These stances, as well as the different techniques and methodologies of the composers pitted them on somewhat of a spectrum, with Babbitt and his systematic, modernist ideas that were largely based in the music schools of academic institutions on one side and Cage, with his uncontrollable, radical combinations of Avant Garde sounds on the other side. These ideas on audience construction and relations were also visible in rock music of the 1960’s, particularly in compositions of artists such as Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan.

Sonata V of John Cage has binary form which consists of small-ranged irregular phrases. The piece as a whole does not have a distinct melody. The first section has a smooth, repetitive rhythm, and percussive sound of prepared piano is ethereal. There is a regular pulse throughout the first section, and the pulse is delayed in some places with a couple of extra notes (“Sonata V,” 0:12-0:16). The second part is more like the developmental part of the Classical sonata form. It is more dissonant and irregular, and there are pauses between some phrases. The piece as a whole differs from Western music in almost every aspect. Some parts of the piece resemble African drumming (“Sonata V,” 0:47-0:52). However, Cage was actually inspired from Javanese Gamelan, an orchestra of metallic percussion from Indonesia (Forney et. al., 374).

Barry Jenkins’s 2016 film, Moonlight, is a work that is characterized by its silences, both in what is unsaid, as well as the unresolved nature of many of its central tensions. In the film, silence functions to emphasize the interiority of the film’s subject, and to make the audience aware of itself. Such strategic use of absence recalls John Cage's groundbreaking composition, 4'33; a work that is distinguished by its lack of any audible musical accompaniment. For many, the piece is reflective of Cage's sexual identity as a gay man; the silence functioning as a metaphor for the “closet” (Katz 241). The scholar Jonathan Katz has pushed against such a totalizing reading of Cage's oeuvre, by noting that silence was part of his larger aesthetic and religious practices, and thusly cannot be considered as simply an aural manifestation of the closet (242). Katz argues that, "Silence was much more than conventionally unmusical; it provided a route toward an active challenge of the assumptions and prejudices that gave rise to homophobic oppression in the first place. For Cage, silence was an ideal form of resistance, carefully attuned to the requirements of the cold war consensus, at least in its originary social-historical context." (241).

The first part of this response is to try and identify why John Cage received so much criticism from lovers of traditional music and post war modernists. Cage adopts chance techniques in his compositions and this makes things go awry for him in regard to being referred to as a composer, most critics consider him more of a music philosopher than a composer. Especially after the 19-hour performance of vexations which sadly did not amuse many. The randomness of his compositions makes it hard for him to establish his authority as a composer.

When we are born into this World, some say we are born with no predefined path, others will say one 's Destiny is already chosen. It is one of the many wonders of the Human experience to try and seek purpose and meaning in life, to be freed of the constraints society puts upon others. Many people living today do not know what path they are taking, they are walking blindly, in the dark. However, it is possible for one to open their eyes and to see the many opportunities that come their way and to see the light in this complicated world of ours. One of the many people in this world who have experienced this enlightenment is John Coltrane. What makes this man special is that he like many others started out life with no path he only lived in the moment not thinking about how he can leave his mark on the world. However unlike the majority of the population Coltrane midway through his life realised he needed to make a change in the world and that the way he would do it would be through his music. Coltrane’s success came to be due to his determination to fulfill his dream of making the world a better place, while overcoming the various barriers society and the world he was born into put in front of him; this determination led to his success. However like all barriers, some simply can not be overcome, and failure will play a crucial role in Coltrane’s career. Although through failure, one can learn to better themselves and achieve complete greatness, this is exactly what Coltrane

John Milton Cage Jr. is easily one of the most influential American composers of our time. John Cage spent his early life in Los Angeles, California after being born to Lucretia Harvey and John Milton Cage Sr. on September 5, 1912. Cage’s embarked on the first steps to his music career when he began taking private piano lessons when he was just a kid. As the years went by it seemed as if Cage became more interested in literature and writing than music composition. Cage graduated from Los Angeles High School as valedictorian and went on to give a rather enticing speech that gained recognition at the Hollywood Bowl. Cage’s speech seemed to have foreshadowed his most popular piece entitled “4’33”, one of which I consider to be one of the most

Wayne Peterson “was born in Albert Lea, a small town Minnesota on March 8th 1927” (Henken, 1992, pp 1). He is now retired and has been living in San Francisco, California since 1960. Since Peterson is still alive and a private man there are currently no sources that tell how he started writing his music. Although it is known that where he began composing and that he composed under the influences of Copland, Stravinsky, Schoenberg and Bartok. Wayne Peterson played piano and studied composition in Minnesota University where he received not only his bachelors and masters but also his PhD. While he studied at Minnesota University, he studied with American composers, Paul Fetler, Earl George and James Aliferis. “Peterson went on to advance his studies after his PhD on a Fulbright Scholarship, which enabled him to spend a

For instance, Cage has claimed in a interview that he loves sounds just how they are and they do not to be anymore than they already (John Cage about Silence). In more simpler terms, he is asserting the fact that he believes planned out music with specific notes and certain melodies is no better than the sounds heard through daily life. Moreover, the significance one might find in 4'33" is the utter simplicity and beauty that can be found within the piece because of it's compelling and influential nature (Pritchett, 10). Another concept that made Cage's music one of the most misunderstood pieces ever written is how people now a days are often used to music being in an exact way. Music in today's society is at a certain pace of tempo, contain repetitive chants, and a specific rhythmic pattern. Yet, for many, Cage's 4'33" was a kind of artistic prayer in a serene, calm environment that opened the ears and allowed one to hear the world anew. Likewise, Cage used an act of framing, of enclosing environmental and unintended sounds in a moment of attention in order to open the mind to the fact that all sounds are music (Kyle Gann, 2). The essential reason behind this new approach to listening is to establish a new understanding of music itself by blurring the traditional boundaries between art and life. Overall, the context within Cage's composition is different to every person since each individual finds a distinct interpretation because sounds can not be replicated to be sounded the same in every

A composer can win the award for Best Original Score, Best Scoring Adaptation, Best Original Song Score, just to name a few. Although the composers’ names are often overshadowed by the film title, their work stands on Its own. This overshadowing is similar to many of the great classical composers’ relations to their works. “Moonlight Sonata” is one of Beethovens’ most popular pieces; however, you could argue that it is so popular that many people today have no idea that it is composed by Beethoven. Likewise, John Williams has been nominated for an Academy Award 50 times and has scored numerous famed films. The most celebrated being the Star Wars series, Superman, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the Indiana Jones series, Jurassic Park, Schindler's List, and Jaws. An individual doesn’t have to watch these films to recognize the theme songs. Many critics and music enthusiasts credit the 1977 Star Wars score as the beginning of a grand symphonic revival. Yet, despite all his success and awards, John Williams’ name is overshadowed by these blockbuster

The second category of indeterminacy is performance indeterminacy, which Cage describes in his 1958 essay. In this category some aspects of the work are required to be left open to the performer’s choice in performance. The result of this would be works that differ from one performance to the other. The degree of this difference depends on the amount of control taken by the artist or left to the performer. Performance indeterminacy results from the creation of possibilities within a score, in order to achieve variations between different performances of the same

American avant-garde composer John Cage (1912-1992) experimented with the nature of sound and devised new systems of musical notation. His innovative ideas on composition and performance influenced musicians, painters, and choreographers.

One significant reason why cage is considered unique is because of his experimentation with unorthodox instruments such as the prepared piano and tape recorder. This was in efforts to break the musical boundaries of traditional music in the west, this style was a change from his traditional musical styles early on in his career, which were more alike to his mentors and followed more of 12-tone style. The ideas brought forward by cage made him more of a philosopher than a composer, he broke the normal role of a composer by encouraging people to focus on sounds rather than music and by promoting eastern philosophies, specifically Zen Buddhism. He has extended his teachings for years to come after his death by publishing many books such as “silence” and “lectures and writings”. Cage always placed an emphasis on the ideas conveyed by his music more than how they sounded, for example cage composed a piece in which the performers are silent, only with ambient sounds in the background. This goes to show

Roger Ballen makes use of controversial compositions that touches ones inner being to a great extent. He has a easily recognizable style that can be detected throughout his work

The competition within the field of music is perhaps the most strenuous and brutal of all fields throughout history. John Field and