John Cage

               I was stunned when I read about the unconventional work of John Cage in the text.  He invented the prepared piano, which is simply a normal piano with random objects attached to its strings.

               Later on in his career, Cage “composed” a strange piece of “music” called 4’33”.  In 4’33”, the performer literally just sits in front of a piano for four minutes and thirty-three seconds.  The actual music of the piece becomes all of the noises in the room.  This is an example of the aleatory work that made Cage so famous.  Aleatory means that his work depends on random happenings.  So, if a person sitting in the room watching 4’33” coughed, it would become a part of the piece.  I understand that Cage had new ideas and was being very experimental, but I DON’T understand how something like 4’33” can be a respected piece of music or how it can be called music at all.  Cage composed another piece of “music” called “Imaginary Landscape No. 4,” in which twelve radios are playing at the same time while performers mess with the volume and the controls.  I don’t know which would be worse: having to sit in awkward silence watching a still performer sit in front of a piano for five minutes or having to listen to the chaotic noise of twelve radios playing over each other.  Either way, I don’t consider these pieces music at all and if I was an audience member I would want my money back.

4'33"

Imaginary Landscape No. 4

               While John Cage was doing something completely different from any artist that came before him, I can definitely see the connection to the Dada movement.  Cage’s work is nonsense, and it raises the question of how far an artist can stray from the norm while still calling his work art.