John Cage

No matter how you see him, whether he was regarded as a musical visionary or just another enfant terrible, the American minimalist composer John Cage has left a prominent mark in music and culture in the latter years of the 20th century. He broke the conventions and destroyed expectations of what music should be and encouraged audiences to view and think of music as constituting any type of sound, from beautiful and ordered to random and ugly. He divided his audience into two parts: those who were opposed to his ideas and those who appreciated his originality. Cage liked the controversy and used it to fuel more conversation.

Cage often viewed himself as more of an inventor rather than a composer of sorts. He challenged preconceived notions of what music, art, sound, and noise could be and explored the intersection of these elements, focusing on rhythm and timbre as principle organizers of sound.  On listening to all sounds, he states “If you develop an ear for sounds that are musical it is like developing an ego. You begin to refuse sounds that are not musical and that way cut yourself off from a good deal of experience.” He also used percussive elements in juxtaposition with silence as form-building techniques. Furthermore, his experiments with instrumentation (not only with traditional instruments, but also other “instruments” such as pots, pans, and sheet metal) resulted in his development of the “prepared piano,” where various objects such as screws, nuts, bolts, rubber bands, etc. in addition to muting devices such as leather strings and pieces of paper are inserted in between the strings of a piano such that, when played, creates both pitched and non-pitched sounds that evoke the shimmery effect of a gamelan orchestra, and opens new timbral possibilities. As well, he introduced indeterminacy (also called aleatoric music, from that Latin “alea” meaning “dice”) and chance elements to his music to make his music less predictable, ensuring that no piece would ever be played the same way twice; staging “happenings:” random theatrical presentations that were minimally scripted avant-garde elements integrating music, art, and life. Moreover, he developed and perfected graphic notation to a new level (visual approach to writing music), exploring unorthodox visual renderings of the sounds he heard in his head. Detailed notes to the performer on how the piece should be played often replaced traditional notation elements. Last but not least, he influenced and had an impact on many composers and performers of his time, including Pierre Boulez, Iannis Xenakis, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Frank Zappa, and Radiohead.

In closing, John Cage is one of the most significant and well-remembered composers of the late 20th century. Through his innovations and contributions, he helped shape our ideas and definitions of music today, and taught us to view music more inclusively overall.