The Music Of John Cage

When the word music is heard, generally the first thing that comes to mind is how one would be able to relate to the piece. John Cage, a contemporary composer, expanded the normality of music by sounds with no meaning or emotional connection and silence. The propinquity between mind and music is difficult to sever, and to have music without an emotional connection is unfathomable.

As the title of the autobiography reads, “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings” is the metaphor Maya Angelou utilizes to get her message across. Maya and her brother Bailey, ages three and four respectively, are turned over to the care of their grandmother in the segregated Stamps, Arkansas. From a very young age, Maya and Bailey observe their

John Cage is not an outlier to this idea, yet his philosophy of music and outlook on the difference of music and sounds are very different than most composers today. For starters, “John Milton Cage Jr. was born in Los Angeles on September 5, 1912” (Nicholls 5). This fact may be insignificant at a face value, but it means that Cage grew up during World War I and World War II, and shortly right after the Romantic Period. He was blessed with talents of both music and academics, and saw his first symphony concert at the age of five which sparked his curiosity and awe for music (Nicholls 9). After graduating Los Angeles High School decorated as a valedictorian, Cage went on to pursue the further education in Pomona College in Claremont, California, but dropped out shortly after losing his interests (Nicholls 11). He then followed his curiosity in Europe, learning of all sorts of instruments and his passion towards composing was born (Nicholls 12). From childhood to adulthood, it is clear that John Cage had a late start to his composing career compared to composers such as Chopin, who was already a published composer by the age of eight (Michalowski and Samson 1). Through his later years, Cage developed an interest and idolized Arnold Schoenberg, the Austrian composer known for his innovations in atonality (Pritchett 1). Atonality refers to a style of music in which the piece

As Alex Ross describes, “Cage love[s] noise” (366). This should be why he decided to alter his piano in a “conceptually violent” and unusual way for Sonatas and Interludes. Though, Cage’s aim was not pure violence, as we are pleased by the “soft sounds” instead of being “battered by some unholy racket” (Ross, 366). I

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.

Richard Taruskin’s essay helps expound on John Cage’s notion of autonomous art. He writes that, Cage brought about the true aesthetics of Western art in what he calls to ‘its purest peak.’ Taruskin also relates to Cage’s work as having a notion of ‘purposeful purposelessness.’ Cage’s work was in itself a form of autonomous art because of its hallowedness and special modes of performance, like the piece 4’33”. In addition, there is a middle man who interfaces the audience

Rather than a musical composition or visual installation, the work 4’33’’ is a concept in art history. Therefore, I think there is no need to separate music and visual art. To be honest, 4’33’’ is the silence within 4’33’’ that presents ideas to the audience. Cage

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).

Having looked at the emotional effect this music has on people, it is now worth looking at the specific churches within the Sydney diocese to get a greater understanding on a smaller level as to how the music is played and what effect it might have. To do this, there have been visits to said churches to see what goes on, this is like a large scale of the participant observation methodology. This was a very useful in developing an understanding for how different churches of the same denomination were going about music as part of the service. There is some clear information that has come out from attending these churches. Firstly, and worth noting, the churches run very similar services, across most of the churches the structure of songs is the

Music is art. An art that expertly plays on the emotions of people through rhythm, beats, and silence. Music moves each person in different, extraordinary ways, making it a crucial aspect of today’s pop culture, conveying ideas that may normally be repressed. The most meaningful melodies are more often than not, found within film. A common idea of many of these compositions is transcendentalism. More specifically, the ideas that came from the transcendentalist philosophical movement that developed in the mid 1820s and early 1830s in the United States. Even though this advance in literature occurred over a century ago, it still plays a key role in today’s society. One of the transcendentalists' founding principles was their belief in the pure

Keith Jarrett is an American pianist whose personality, philosophy, and music emerge as a force; not only within a jazz context, but within any contemporary American musical style. The width of Jarretts musical ability, crossing all genres of music, including, but not limited to: jazz, classical, and “world” music, is unmatched by most. But, for some reason his name, or playing is very rarely mentioned outside of the jazz idiom. Keith Jarrett’s profound and philosophical explanations for his music give us a rare example of an immensely talented musician, who is unafraid to contend with the public eye.

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

The 4’33’’(“Four, minutes, thirty-three seconds”) is a three-movement composition composed by John Cage(1912-1992) who was an experimental American composer. The basic description of this composition is that all the performers of any instruments not to play their instruments during the entire duration of the piece throughout the three movements which makes it become one of the most important and meaningful musical compositions of the 20th century. Until now, it is still an controversial question to “define” 4’33’’ as a joke or music.

Famous music composer, Ludwig van Beethoven once rightly quoted “Music is a higher revelation than philosophy”. Indeed, music has higher magnitude than just being a mere form of entertainment- it plays a significant role in our society be it politics or religion or even academics. So important is music’s value that it has been recorded throughout history of mankind in numerous ancient writings including the sacred Hindu scripture, Veda. Thus it is no surprise that even today the value and contribution of music has not declined but on the contrary, risen.

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