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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Williams Mix
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
s
It sounds to me like this piece was created by splicing sounds together. The rhythm is sporadic but consistently moving. It's almost as if we're channel surfing through all the sounds on the planet, on random in the 1950's. I also hear special sounds tweaked in different ways. The pattern is a constantly moving sequence of sounds, ending with audience applause.
The piece starts off with changing sounds, warping from one sound to another in a fast pace, as the piece evolves there seems to be a delay between the sounds. There are frog noises that are played throughout the song. It's almost like he's turning the dial on a radio to different stations.
The visual imagery I get when listening to this song is reminiscent of the days of old radio when the piece was first composed in 1952. The title of the piece is Williams mix, this title is straight forward in that this is a mix of sounds. I think this song is an exploration into technology and sound. John used magnetic tape to splice sounds together for this piece, the song sounds random at first, but after research I found that John used the Chinese I-Ching divination system to come up with the arrangement for this. He said there were approximately 600 different sounds used for this piece. All the sounds were placed into 6 categories. Completing this four minute song took John approximately one year.
I really enjoyed this piece and learning about John. I like this idea for a project as well and I hope we can get to learn about more pioneers in electronic music. John's unconventional ideas about what music is have expanded my outlook. For 1952 I think its safe to say that this was completely mind blowing to the people of that time. I can understand if they didn't understand it because it is very complex. This is now considered avant garde because it was so ahead of its time.
Beyond being a composer John was also a philosopher, artist, writer, and amateur mycologist. I got a chance to watch a video on youtube of John in the later days of his life discussing sound and silence. His views are unlike any that I have heard before, and he makes good points about what sound is and our perceptions of them.
s
@Chris Archard I wrote that 15 years ago as a review/report assignment for a music class in high school. I thought I would share it here as well! Cheers
Chris Archard
You win the golden autist prize
Scott Jodoin
@fuzzballzz36 Apparaently Bebe and Louis Barron did a lot of the work according to John Cage's instructions. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bebe_and_Louis_Barron
fuzzballzz36
It is. These are short segments of reel-to-reel tape spliced together. That's a good way to describe it! The audience applause is because the tape was being played live as part of a lengthy concert.
Meh Me
Listen to revolution 9 by the Beatles. It's similar to this.
LGtBT
Wow, no wonder they made this guy go fight in Mortal Kombat.
cut
The Pioneer of Modern Music -> sampling, dub, using ordinary sounds, it's brilliant !
Kodanshi Helcarver
One of my most favourite John Cage works. Astounding in its scope and vision, painstakingly composed, and yet sounds so random.
JazzVictrola
Not much here for all the time it took.