The Eternal Debate

This a post about John Cage. If you don't know who he is, check out this video. Then read on...



This post is about a strong debate among musicians of whether or not John Cage is a "good" composer (or a composer at all), or if he is just someone who does "weird" things and calls them artistic. I will offer my opinions here (it is my blog after all haha).

Every now and then I run across a youtube video or overhear a conversation about John Cage and his compositions, and many people are often very critical of him. I don't understand this at all. How a musician can criticize a composer by calling his works "garbage, shit, no-talent, etc." (I have heard or read these things personally) is completely beyond me. I consider John Cage not so much as a composer, but as an individual looking to push the boundries of life--in other words, an ARTIST.

For example, think about Cage's 4'33''. For those not familiar with it, the piece is 4 minutes and 33 seconds of silence. The performer simply sits at the piano bench, and doesn't play a note. The music are the sounds that occur in the 4 minute and 33 second window. For those who are interested, time yourself and just sit for that amount of time. You'll be surprised at what you experience.

Many people have commented on this piece negatively, saying things like "how can this be music" or "anyone could compose this". I will address those two statements.
1. Whether or not this is music could be entirely debatable. Unfortunately, that's not the point of the piece. Cage wasn't trying to do anything except bring sound (which would be the interruption of silence) into the forefront of peoples' thinking--at least for 4 minutes and 33 seconds. That's it.

2. For the people who say that "anyone could compose this", I completely agree with you. But here's the thing: yes, anyone has the possibility of composing this. However, you didn't. The other great composers in the world didn't either. John Cage did, and I believe it was a very courageous thing to do.

This post may seem a little odd to some of the people who read this blog. Some may be thinking "why is this such a big deal?" I believe it is a big deal because some of the greatest inventions, artistic contributions, etc., come from the simplest ideas, such as 4'33''. Many of Cage's pieces are very simple, and that's the incredible beauty of them.

-J