Merce Music: John Cage

Throughout the 20th century, John Cage was often considered by many to be the central voice of avant-garde music. Uniting composition with philosophy, he recreated the surface of modern music. For Cage, the 1950s brought him a sequence of critical events that both developed him as a composer and brought him much fame, or notoriety to some. He had a strong interest in Eastern Zen philosophy, a subject that is reinforced and incorporated in all of his musical works, which grew throughout the beginning of the 1900’s. When Cage entered an anechoic chamber at Harvard in 1950 he discovered that sound is innately present in all human beings. This discovery is portrayed in his famous silent piece 4’33”. Also during this period, Cage was involved at Black Mountain College in North Carolina with dancer Merce Cunningham, which …show more content…
In just one short piece, Cage was able to break history of the classical composition of music and not make music, but listen. 4’33” is a piece of music that consists of four minutes and thirty-three seconds of silence the entire time. The piece became the essence for Cage that any sound has the ability to constitute music. Even though Cage’s early days of composing promoted noise he often spoke of wanting new sounds. He used percussion instruments to include sounds that he thought most accurately represented the nature of the culture around him. To deal with the piece, 4’33”, one must think about the meaning behind it. Cage is trying to portray the concept of silence and if it really even exists. Touching the subject of silence in 1951 was of great importance to Cage which changed how he approached his music. The piece was created more for the audience to gain an experience rather than the audience depicting the meaning. The piece is a tribute to an experience of pure silence and is a reminder that silence exists and it is important for