John Cage
Prepared piano inventor
John Cage was an American composer and music theorist who expanded the definition of music itself.
Best known for *4'33"*, a piece in which performers play nothing, letting ambient sounds become the composition.
Cage championed chance operations, prepared piano, and the idea that any sound—or silence—could be music.
His work influenced not just composers but visual artists, dancers, and philosophers throughout the late twentieth century.
Lack of fixed outcome
Total lack of sound
- chanceLikelihood of occurrence
- indeterminacyLack of fixed outcome
- zenMeditative calm
- emptinessAbsence of substance
interpenetration · acceptance · Suzuki · mushrooms · anarchism · process · impermanence · listening
Things that take place
- CunninghamScottish-Irish hereditary name
- TudorSixteenth-century English ruling family
- multimediaCombined content formats
- intermediaArt between established genres
Duchamp · Rauschenberg · experimental · boundary-pushing · unconventional · radical · provocative · controversial
Unwanted auditory disturbance
- ambientOf the surroundings
- electroacousticInvolving amplified sound production
- percussionSound through impact
- radiosWireless audio devices
amplification · feedback · electronics · tape · turntables · water · resonance · timbre
indeterminacy
Lack of fixed outcome
silence
Total lack of sound
- chanceLikelihood of occurrence
- indeterminacyLack of fixed outcome
- zenMeditative calm
emptiness · interpenetration · acceptance · Suzuki · mushrooms · anarchism · process · impermanence · listening · attention
happenings
Things that take place
- CunninghamScottish-Irish hereditary name
- TudorSixteenth-century English ruling family
- multimediaCombined content formats
Duchamp · Rauschenberg · intermedia · experimental · boundary-pushing · unconventional · radical · provocative · controversial · influence
noise
Unwanted auditory disturbance
- ambientOf the surroundings
- electroacousticInvolving amplified sound production
- percussionSound through impact
radios · amplification · feedback · electronics · tape · turntables · water · resonance · timbre · texture
- Chance Musicindeterminacy
- Experimental Musicnoise music, experimental music, avant-garde music, sound art, electroacoustic
- New Musicnew music, world premieres, Philip Glass, serialism, atonality
- Avant-Garde PoetsGertrude Stein, E.E. Cummings, Tristan Tzara
- ComposersBach, Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms, Haydn
- Music PioneersElvis Presley, The Beatles, Chuck Berry, Louis Armstrong, Bob Dylan
John CageRichard Wagner
Johannes Brahms · Romanticism · Giacomo Puccini · John Williams · bombast