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John Cage Research Paper

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John Cage is a controversial composer. Some may say he revolutionized music composition and changed music history of the 20th century, yet others do not even acknowledge his compositional contributions as music. I believe John Cage was a brilliant artist, and his works push the boundaries of both sound and music to create a genre of his own by using the elements of silence and chance. Through his compositional development, one can track his changing music philosophy as it grew from a limited notion of silence, to the enjoyment of the element of chance, to a redefined meaning of silence that reaches beyond the grasp of most innovators still today. In a recording of Cage’s piece Seven2 one can hear a landscape created through sporadic sound. …show more content…

He began to beg the question of what silence truly is, and of what defines the world of music as a separate entity from everyday sounds. In his experimentation, Cage never truly found an answer, only more boundaries to be pushed and broken. Subjectively, John Cage’s most famous piece is 4’33”, performed by David Tudor. Hundreds gathered into a theatre on opening night waiting in anticipation. The piece began; Tudor bowed, sat down, closed the piano, and started a timer. After four minutes and thirty three seconds of pure silence, Tudor rose, bowed, and exited the stage. Some left in outrage, others claimed it was art, and many were left confused by the …show more content…

The Juilliard Journal referred to John Cage’s compositional experimentation as “transforming a familiar instrument into something enticingly alien.” Cage began experimenting with instruments early in his musical career by first altering pianos with metal plates and screws before playing them. In the 1960’s Cage began a new movement appropriately titled “found Sound.” (“John Cage: About the Composer”). He used unconventional instruments such as handheld radios, water, and sea shells. He was pushing the boundaries of music by claiming that sound is a form of music. The randomness of it added an element of chance to these experiments, some recordings could never be duplicated. What makes the music of John Cage easily recognizable is it’s unpredictability. The two well known pieces employing chance operations are “Imaginary Landscape No 4″ and “Water Music.” While I personally find these pieces hard to listen to, Cage’s philosophy regarding the role of chance within music is an important development in the world of music history, for it led to him furthering the definition of music. Music doesn’t have to be written and replicated specifically for it to be considered a fully composed and developed work. “Imaginary Landscape No 4,” consisting of twelve radios played at once sounds different every time based on the broadcasts playing, yet it is still a fully developed musical

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