The Music Of John Cage

One of our first assignments this semester was to explain the history and story behind the number one, and how this related to music. We did this through research of ancient mathematicians and the ratios that made music enjoyable to listen to. This was the first topic that introduced us to the relationship between humanism, science and technology. Throughout this course, we have studied numbers, poems and a significant amount of music, all of which have helped us to gain a better understanding of the relationship between humanism and science.

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 a very powerful expression of emotions that come together as a whole to morph your psychological feelings into a sub-reality vision. Over the many years, history has been able to capture the moments at which music has made an impact on human lives. We can start with Manu Chao the artist that sings about left-wing messages and portrays his concerts as “collective therapy”. Or Juan Gabriel the young man that rose out of poverty to become the world’s most beloved artist/songwriter and whose music carried a resonate flamboyant style. Music is a way of communication that is used in many realms such as entertainment, tradition religion and sporting events. So far this semester, Chic 316 has influenced me to seek a more coherent relationship

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.

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

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).

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

Later on, after a trip to America, Holst received great congratulations for his performance of the Planets, and an anonymous rich man gave him several hundred pounds to spend on his music. But, Holst was beginning to have bad effects of the concussion he was in earlier, and he couldn’t bear to have anything touch the back of his head. He spent many nights in agony, so his doctor suggested that he moved away from London.

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

Analysis of musical quote of legends Introduction Music is one of those unique things that has its own depth as well as emotions The world has seen many great artist and musicians over the years. Two artist, each of them legends in their own era, had two opinion about music. This report critically analysis and evaluate both of the quotations as well as their strength and weaknesses. Analysis of the two quotes

His philosophy of music does apply to modern music today. For instance if you listen to the instrumental of any song today from any genre (rap, pop, r&b...etc.), artists get a feel from the music before they compose their lyrics. If you were to extract the lyrics from a song you would dismiss the meaning of that song and actually picture what you think that music actually means. Any song is considered music with or without lyrics your personal portrayal of what it means or what it feels is what makes

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.

In 1933 began to focus on music rather than on visual art, and moved to New York, and later to California (UCLA), to study with Schoenberg. In Cage’s autobiography, he mentions:

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