John Cage

 

I've seen some of my classmates being challenged by the fact that they could not find enough resources for their artists for this project; The Medium is the Messsage Research Report. I was challenged by something quite opposite... too many references on John Cage!

John Cage

Having been an American composer, philosopher, poet, music theorist, artist, printmaker, and an amateur mushroom collector, John Cage hads so much to share to the world. Even within his artistic careers and accomplishment, I found so many genres of works by him, that I had to choose specifics in order to keep it to the 8 minutes limit. 

What I found really fascinating about John Cage's works are the Zen Buddhism influence in his works and his approach. He was introduced to Zen in early 50's, and his personality as well as perspective towards his own works and approach changed drastically. I am not a Buddhist but I have a great interest in Buddhism since living in a community near Tietans for about 6 years in the past. The core belief of Buddhism claims that nothing has intent, and nothing has soul. Just like that, John Cage applies this idea to his works.

Another intriguing characteristics about John Cage that drew my attention were the fact that he is both a musician (a composer) and an artist. I am neither a musician nor an artist looking into future careers related to those fields. However, I do enjoy both (in fact, I am minoring in both music and art), and I especially love it when the two are blended together. This, blending, is exactly what John Cage did in many of his works. 

The 4'3'' is an interesting one. Cage composed an entire symphony for orchestra called 4 minutes 33 seconds (4'3") that last for that duration. There are 3 movements in the piece, like many symphony pieces. What is different? It's silence. In the clip below, you will find a concert in memory of John Cage where the orchestra performed 4'33". The musicians are on stage in their black. The audience fills the seats. The conductor stands on the podium. So what's the difference? It's the silence. First movement: tacit. Second movement: tacit. Third movement: tacit. The first movements has an awkward tension, where the audience tries to hold their breadth to avoid making the tiniest noise. Then people become a little more relaxed in the second movement, with occasional coughs. And then the last movement, people are fidgeting, coughing, sneezing... It is truly interesting. Who would have thought that? Here, Cage is trying to point out the aesthetics of noise. There is no intention. Nothing is fixed. His works always are created along the way because the progression (in his opinion) is what is important. Not the product. 

That is just one of the manyfamous works by John Cage. Other works include prepared piano, of which, only a short portion will be shown during the presentation, but it is worth watching. It's amazing how John Cage managed to look at something, something already beautiful and fixed like melodious sound, to take that and bend it and transform it into something completely different. To many ears, especially those trained in the fixed Western tonal music, it may sound bizarre. But we must look beyond what is norm, because he is an Avant-garde artist!