Cage first collaborated with dancer and choreographer Merce Cunningham in the 1940s, using random procedures and indeterminacy in his compositions.
He created challenging musical puzzles for virtuoso performers like pianist David Tudor to solve, such as technical obstacles (in works featuring graphic scores) or issues related to interpretation.
Early works
John Cage was born in Los Angeles, California to an inventor father and journalist mother. After attending Pomona College for two years – before dropping out to travel Europe and explore various forms of art – Cage was inspired by avant-garde artists like Marcel Duchamp to find his own distinctive approach to music and artistic expression through sound experiments with everyday objects used as instruments as well as writing experimental scores for performances.
Cage met dancer and choreographer Merce Cunningham in the late 1940s; she would become his lifelong partner and begin artistic collaborations that revolutionized contemporary music and dance.
Cage also utilized this period to devise a way of breaking away from conventional harmony. His Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (1950-51) employed charts containing durations, dynamics, melodies and other parameters which could be chosen by performers using simple mathematical patterns; this marked the first steps toward his future use of chance procedures that became increasingly prominent in his work.
By the 1960s, Cage had started to experiment with multimedia and theatrical events incorporating random processes and indeterminacy, leading to work like Variations IV performed for four hours at an art gallery in Los Angeles. Cage believed that by giving musicians free reign over what sounds they play when and for how long, they would bypass their egos and taste and create unique music of their own.
Cage collaborated with computer composer Lejaren Hiller on creating HPSCHD (1967-1969). Cage also experimented with different ways of representing time in his music, often mixing acoustic and electronic instruments he called either prepared or unprepared music in one composition.
Cage’s work may have been considered highly unconventional during his lifetime, yet his experiments influenced an entire generation of composers that used random processes and indeterminacy in their works. His revolutionary oeuvre inspired composers to experiment with non-traditional instrumentation and rhythm – inspiring musicians like Stereolab to Aphex Twin to use non-traditional instrumentation and rhythm techniques in their compositions. Cage was one of the pioneers to embrace modern technology as part of his music composition process.
Indeterminism
Cage became fascinated with random procedures and indeterminacy during his compositions from this era; these often featured sounds such as door hinges rattling and fans spinning at random – an emphasis which would later form the basis of much of his future work; Cage called this principle indeterminism.
Cage made famous his piece “4’33”, in which the performer (at its premier it was Tudor) would sit silent for four minutes and thirty-three seconds in an attempt to challenge traditional musical conventions as well as question audience assumptions of what art entailed. Cage would use this method again later, creating works using it and forcing audiences to listen in new ways.
Indeterminism was a revolutionary concept that held that all sounds can be considered music and every experience could spark creative works of art. This revolutionary idea had an enormous influence on later composers.
Cage’s interest in chance operations grew steadily during the 1960s and he began writing scores that only indicated what needed to be done, rather than how it should sound. This marked a departure from his earlier style which relied on strict rules for creating music.
Cage’s revolutionary shift came about through his understanding that music wasn’t solely the work of composers but was part of nature itself, believing all sounds had musical potential, such as leaves rustling in the wind and the steady buzzing of cicadas.
Cage first gained interest in multimedia events during the 1960s, which led to his collaborations with avant-garde artists like Nam June Paik and Luciano Berio. His works often involved audio technology, theater productions, videos and even Geiger counters – techniques he believed allowed him to transcend personal ego, taste and expression and draw inspiration from nature itself.
Collaborations
Cage collaborated on numerous projects with musicians, artists, and writers during the 1950s in an attempt to bridge disparate art worlds and use all forms of media as sources of creativity. He highlighted the significance of sound spaces rather than actual sounds themselves as well as investigating their relationship to silence; further exploring this idea through Coomaraswamy’s works that inspired chance operations within his compositions. Cage often turned to philosophy for support when making new artistic breakthroughs – being heavily influenced by East Asian thought as well as drawing upon Coomaraswamy’s works when beginning his compositional experiments.
He was drawn to the concept of using chance to produce new sounds never heard before, and encouraged his performers to respond spontaneously when engaging with sound. He wrote that he wanted his performers to listen with all of their bodies and focus on listening without becoming overburdened by its sounds; it required total discipline on behalf of performers to allow the sounds to happen naturally. This proved challenging!
Empty Words was another of his compositions that was intended for live performance by an audience, utilizing compositional techniques similar to his music (rhythmic structures, chance processes and use of source materials). Rob Haskins refers to this group of writings as “text compositions,” including poems, essays and lectures which blurred the distinction between reading-only words and spoken text meant for performance.
Interviews provided an opportunity for him to discuss his collaborations with Merce Cunningham, Bonnie Bird, David Tudor, Mac Low and Minna Lederman; his collaborations with composers and artists; his use of I Ching in Water Walk piece; ideas for theatre as well as exploring divine presence within daily life through I Ching; synergy – his term coined to describe connections that may not be readily apparent – which was fascinating; synergy became his subject matter of fascination as well.
Teaching
Cage was also an outstanding teacher; he taught at Wesleyan University, University of Cincinnati and regularly gave lectures and classes. Additionally he collaborated with dancers such as Merce Cunningham and David Tudor as well as exploring new sound resources including prepared pianos. His works were heavily influenced by readings in Eastern philosophy as well as ideas gained during travel abroad.
He often employed chance elements to dissociate himself from the compositional process, creating works which left more room for interpretation by audiences. He wanted to demonstrate that music existed everywhere and all sounds could become musical if seen with an open mind. Music was seen as part of nature itself; therefore he encouraged audiences to pay close attention to all sounds they hear around them.
His own music was often composed with an assortment of percussion instruments and he developed various methods of prepping them to be more responsive to the environment. His compositions often included text, poetry and other nontraditional musical materials in their pieces. Sand, water, ice, insects and other sources were often employed as music-making materials as an innovative feature in his works.
Cage experimented with various percussion instruments and methods before expanding his repertoire with orchestral pieces, operas, theatre pieces and collaborative projects such as opera. He became an important figure of modernist composition while having an immense impact on younger composers.
Later on in his career, he developed an interest in Buddhism and other Eastern philosophies, expanding his approach to music further. Additionally, he became increasingly concerned with environmental issues – writing several books related to these subjects.
Cage left an extensive legacy of papers and other materials behind, from his correspondence at Northwestern University to writings, essays and materials pertaining to mushrooms and nature at Wesleyan University; materials related to mushrooms at University of California Santa Cruz and musical manuscripts held at New York Public Library.