john cage

 john cage (1912-92) an american composer. cage organized the project of music for magnetic tape. he worked with composers Earle Brown(1926-2002)Morton Feldman(1926-87)christian wolff(b.1934) and david tudor who all began to explore the tape medium with assistance from louis and bebe barron. cage was also associated with chance operations. he opened his mind to any and all possible sounds. pitched or unpitched it did not matter to him. he was never limited to rules. he was a musical advisor for over 40yrs with the merce cunningham dance company.  he extended the use of electronics to live performances, which were recorded later. the company also maintained cages interest in electronic music because he didnt like the typical format of magnetic tape concerts during that time.


who were the performers in the video?
there weren't really any performers. they were more engineers than anything else. just setting up the stage with all the "instruments", wires and cables. they would all walk around and that would trigger the photoelectric cells.


who was john cage in the movie?
cage was the mastermind off the performance. he would compose the people and the variables. he would bring engineers at random and add them to the stage. he created performers.


what was cages roll in relinquishing control?
he definitely had control but it wasn't as if he was a control freak. he was very chill, relaxed and laid back. he would set up everything and whatever happened he would go with it.  he just accepted the sounds from the world.


what were the instruments?
there weren't really instruments as they would set up different wires all over different places. such as a turtle tank to capture the water cleaning device, a kitchen in a busy restaurant. the cooks had no idea they were being recorded. so it wasn't staged or anything it was a live performance sort of speak. a classmate called it a "voyeur audio" which makes sense because it was as if they were eves dropping on them and enjoying the sounds that it would produce. not only that but they would take house hold appliances like a juicer or a vacuum and set them up on stage. cage would take everyday sounds and warp them.

how would you define the piece of music?
i honestly would not call it music but an art performance. they took all sources and putting them in one room. it was just a lot of organized noise and they would arrange it to there liking.


how was it more than a sound performance?
it was more than just noise or "music". there was a lot of multimedia. there were a bunch of objects to watch. the people the shadows the lights would provide. they were described as "beautiful shadows".