John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American … Read Full Bio ↴John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer, philosopher, poet, music theorist, artist, printmaker, and amateur mycologist and mushroom collector. A pioneer of chance music, electronic music and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde. Critics have lauded him as one of the most influential American composers of the 20th century. He was also instrumental in the development of modern dance, mostly through his association with choreographer Merce Cunningham, who was also Cage's romantic partner for most of their lives.
Cage is perhaps best known for his 1952 composition 4′33″, the three movements of which are performed without a single note being played. The content of the composition is meant to be perceived as the sounds of the environment that the listeners hear while it is performed, rather than merely as four minutes and thirty three seconds of silence, and the piece became one of the most controversial compositions of the twentieth century. Another famous creation of Cage's is the prepared piano (a piano with its sound altered by placing various objects in the strings), for which he wrote numerous dance-related works and a few concert pieces, the best known of which is Sonatas and Interludes (1946–48).
His teachers included Henry Cowell (1933) and Arnold Schoenberg (1933–35), both known for their radical innovations in music and coincidentally their shared love of mushrooms, but Cage's major influences lay in various Eastern cultures. Through his studies of Indian philosophy and Zen Buddhism in the late 1940s, Cage came to the idea of chance-controlled music, which he started composing in 1951. The I Ching, an ancient Chinese classic text on changing events, became Cage's standard composition tool for the rest of his life. In a 1957 lecture, Experimental Music, he described music as "a purposeless play" which is "an affirmation of life – not an attempt to bring order out of chaos nor to suggest improvements in creation, but simply a way of waking up to the very life we're living".
Cage is perhaps best known for his 1952 composition 4′33″, the three movements of which are performed without a single note being played. The content of the composition is meant to be perceived as the sounds of the environment that the listeners hear while it is performed, rather than merely as four minutes and thirty three seconds of silence, and the piece became one of the most controversial compositions of the twentieth century. Another famous creation of Cage's is the prepared piano (a piano with its sound altered by placing various objects in the strings), for which he wrote numerous dance-related works and a few concert pieces, the best known of which is Sonatas and Interludes (1946–48).
His teachers included Henry Cowell (1933) and Arnold Schoenberg (1933–35), both known for their radical innovations in music and coincidentally their shared love of mushrooms, but Cage's major influences lay in various Eastern cultures. Through his studies of Indian philosophy and Zen Buddhism in the late 1940s, Cage came to the idea of chance-controlled music, which he started composing in 1951. The I Ching, an ancient Chinese classic text on changing events, became Cage's standard composition tool for the rest of his life. In a 1957 lecture, Experimental Music, he described music as "a purposeless play" which is "an affirmation of life – not an attempt to bring order out of chaos nor to suggest improvements in creation, but simply a way of waking up to the very life we're living".
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First Construction
John Cage Lyrics
No lyrics text found for this track.
The lyrics are frequently found in the comments by searching or by filtering for lyric videos
The lyrics are frequently found in the comments by searching or by filtering for lyric videos
the sunlight today reminds me of 1983
Cage liberated the piano the way Hendrix liberated the guitar( or parker the sax)...that is to say: no amount of dischord or distortion could be thereafter deemed mere stupidity, just noise.
One music critic called the great challenge of 20th century music the coming to terms with the breaking down of form and the rise of looser formlessness and forms on the one hand, and the reckoning of NOISE and Diskord-
as the increasingly potent way of injecting abstraction/dischord/anti-whatever/political dissidence etc...
REally and truly powerful distortion, expertly deployed still has a powerful effect, and as along as our brains percieve the way we do, will perhaps always denote the avant-garde, badness with style, rejection of smoothness etc...
I wish I could call Cage the american godfather of distortion and dischord, but he aint! That distinction, at least in America, goes to C Ives: Listen fully and closely to the 2nd mvmt of his fourth symphony and glory in his epic-scale cacophonies!
(or....better yet, listen all the way thru, no bullshit to the 38min universe symphony as re-constructed: kaos in motion
and not in motion; one of the 10 most abstract, challenging, terrifying, visionary pieces in all the American musical canon)
If anyone know of pieces which put the above-mentioned to shame, Please let me know what they are: I am always on the lookout for the Alpha and Omega of American outer-fringe genius!
Oh, and this piece...kicks ass!!
Informed replies much welcomed, my comrades....;)
Jose Noriega
Since i saw an amazing documentary about John Cage on Netflix. I been so curious to explore every thing he ever recorded and/or composed. This dude deconstruct the very concept of what can be music. He often stepped into otherworldly soundscapes that continue to influence introverted weirdo musicians throughout the world.. Years has passed since i saw that documentary.. But every know and then i have binges of Cage's works.. I get so deep in curiosity.. My brain is in like a trancelike state forgetting the concept of time and space... Then suddenly the composition is over.. It's passed midnight and work is a handful of hours of away.. I must go to sleep before spirit of Cage haunts me again. Lol.
Kevin Birge
I’m a fan. The last few years worth of my recordings have had a serious Cage influence.
plekkchand
yeah man like seriously dude
forestsoceansmusic
I'm wondering if anything like this was done earlier? (Walter Ruttman's "Weekend" [1928] is different -- just abstract sound collage, this strongly implies music.) If not, then I've found a new favourite composer -- John Cage! Only Keith Emerson topped this (in his early E, L & Palmer material), and then John McLaughlin's early Mahavishnu Orchestra stuff -- 30-odd years later!
Fernando de Izuzquiza
Superb! 👌🏼 excellent version
Nate Mitchell
@progrocker69 All this is to say, interesting things can be found even in "popular music" of the day in which interesting texture, orchestration, and rhythmic processes are combined with a "simple" bluesy tune
The Dustin Lewit Show
Tim Burton should make a movie with John Cage as the soundtrack.
Howard Kleger
John Cage should've been a special guest on The Muppet Show
Agata Izabela Łęcka
Hahahha <3 would be great to see chickens as his assistants
Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ
There's something terribly uncanny about this piece.