John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer, music theorist, writer, and artist.He is one of the most influential American composers of the 20th century
As we talked in class,he thinks"Any sound is music. Any movement is dance" He doesn't want sound mean anything. Sound and movement are independent.
Cage is best known for his 1952 composition 4′33″. The content of the composition is not "four minutes and 33 seconds of silence," as is sometimes assumed, but rather the sounds of the environment heard by the audience during performance. And here is a vedio for John's 4'33''. A performance by William Marx of John Cage's 4'33.
Filmed at McCallum Theatre, Palm Desert, CA. ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTEFKFiXSx4&noredirect=1 First time I watched this performance, I felt weird. But then I thought it is funny because he adds many sounds of daily objects. I found an interesting thing that there is an 4'33''app for iphone. http://johncage.org/4_33.html
John Cage is a very interesting mind. I believe many people would be upset to go to a John Cage performance only to sit in silence. His idea of what defines music relates directly to modern dance. In its history the idea of what qualified as modern dance was constantly changing. Similarly there were modern dancers who believed that music and dance should be independent of one another. Louis Horst was one choreographer that believed the dancer should be the music. His pieces were created and then music was set to the movement.
回复删除Jianjian, do you think that by separating sound and meaning, Cage actually limits the scope of sound? We cannot deny that some sensory input acquires meaning even if we do not intend for them to (see Pavlov!). Does Cage want people to retrain their brains to actually remove meaning from sound, or simply refrain from believing that the meaning is intentional? Same question applies to Cunningham for dance. I agree with Jillian that people would definitely get upset by art not meeting their standards, and I think it’s valid if it’s critical disappointment. If it’s actual offense or anger, then clearly going to appreciate someone else’s aesthetic contribution to the world was more of an ego trip than an exploration of the arts. In fact, the reason why Cage and Cunningham were so influential is because they point directly at our egos and demolish them!
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