Fryderyk Chopin: Scherzo in C-Sharp Minor. Sergei Rachmaninov: Prelude in B Minor. Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Sonata in A Major, Op. 2. And so on, and so forth. As I read off the list of songs on my Spotify playlist, I remember just why it is that I chose section J8 over any other English 1102 section. It was a single line from the class description that had me from the get-go.
"...a pianist sits down at a
piano and proceeds to not play music for 4 minutes and 33 seconds."
I do not by any means wish to brag, but to say I am a classical music fan would be a gross understatement. As an avid pianist of over ten years and a regular listener of recordings of the classical canon (from Bach to Mozart, Chopin to Scriabin), I have to say that finding the word "piano" in any context tends to draw me to that subject. In fact, as I write this, I am in a practice room at the Couch music building. Yet, the irony of my selecting J8 is the piece in question: not of Beethoven, not of Mozart, but by a certain John Cage.
I had known of John Cage before, having stumbled upon him during one of my many "YouTube runs" looking for new piano music. "John Cage - In a Landscape (1948)" (linked below) was a suggested video on the YouTube sidebar, and one I happened to select. The piece of music was impressionistic in its themes with a watery texture akin to Claude Debussy's famous Clair de Lune, and I loved it. This was the only time that I heard a John Cage piece with an unbiased opinion of his music, completely unaware of the utter noise (and, in the case of 4'33", silence) that he is most associated with today. The very next John Cage work that I heard was his Freeman Etude No. 18 for Solo Violin, published 1990. And what a difference that 42 years made.
There were many classical composers whose later works strayed away from the conventional notion of music and experimented with different sounds, but John Cage took it a step further to pure dissonance (an oxymoron in some sense.) Had I not heard what 36-year-old John Cage had composed, I would have written him off as a lunatic instantly. I guess I was lucky to have heard his beautiful 1948 piece first, or else I may not have met Dr. Rettberg or any of my fellow classmates.
I spent a good deal of time listening to many famous works by Cage, including his solos for sliding trombone and amplified cactus (any reaction is suitable) and, of course, 4'33". The particular recording of 4'33" that I heard convinced me that this was no joke; if the BBC Symphony Orchestra could take this work seriously enough to perform and stream it live, perhaps I had not achieved any significant level of musical knowledge to understand Cage's works yet. Is there a hierarchy of genres based on complexity, and if so, how far does it go, and what can be classified as music in this day and age? To designate John Cage's piece for amplified cactus a work of music and exclude whale vocalization or Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech seems to be extremely hypocritical, as those are two things I'd much rather listen to.
And isn't that the point of music? To, at its most basic level, evoke some positive emotion or a sense of wonder and beauty? I suppose musical tastes vary, but I was yet to find a single person who enjoys what I would characterize as dissonant music (yet another oxymoron; or is it?) That's why I leapt at the opportunity to analyze John Cage's famous work of zero effort.
So what did I learn from the analysis in class? As I expected, the conclusion was very open-ended. A few students enjoyed the silence being "performed", and it's calming effect. Many others felt that the composition was pointless in every regard. There was a discussion on what counts as music in the first place, which defeated any arguments that the piece couldn't be considered music. There was a discussion on John Cage's intent in splitting the silence into 3 movements, which led, in my opinion, nowhere towards understanding the work. I came out of the exercise more confused than ever. I can't help but wonder at John Cage. He's a man who wrote arguably the worst pieces I've ever heard. And he's a man whose initial impression on me was so strong that I simply cannot give up on him.
Maybe someday I will be able to comprehend the greater part of Cage's oeuvre. Until then, I guess I'll spend the 273 seconds of futile downbeats and audience murmur playing a Chopin nocturne in my head.
John Cage - In a Landscape (1948):
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&ei=JTTaVPbLGIODNvWqhMAN&url=http://m.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DI2wtmQkvX7A&ved=0CB8QyCkwAA&usg=AFQjCNH9slf0bHtY85FDuWbG9LIijSaPbA&sig2=U01OoxzcuprdqtPliLa9OA
John Cage - In a Landscape (1948):
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&ei=JTTaVPbLGIODNvWqhMAN&url=http://m.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DI2wtmQkvX7A&ved=0CB8QyCkwAA&usg=AFQjCNH9slf0bHtY85FDuWbG9LIijSaPbA&sig2=U01OoxzcuprdqtPliLa9OA
You have established a very creative style of writing here. It was a very enjoyable experience to read this essay. I like they way you take the reader through your thought process; it really allows your audience to connect to you and your writing on a more personal level. The tone is less than formal but not too uncomfortably informal, which is great. Overall this is a good essay, but you could be a little more specific and descriptive when explaining other works that you have listened to by Cage. I must admit that the only work by Cage I have experienced is 4'33", so I was in the dark while you were discussing In a Landscape and Amplified Cactus. Are these pieces more conventional music or silence similar to 4'33"? Your essay has inspired me to further explore Cage as you have done, and it has really sparked my interest in him, as I am a musician myself. Great job!
ReplyDeleteI noticed that there is a link included for John Cage’s piece “In a Landscape” and to my surprise it was actual music, or at least music that fits the traditional definition. I listened to this piece and it was beautiful, but most importantly it gave me a deeper insight into Cage as a composer. Immediately following listening to “In a Landscape,” I was struck by a bout of reminiscence, remembering some of the favorite pieces I have played in my musical career. First I listened to a piece I played my junior year of high school called “Firefly” by Ryan George. This piece, written in 2008, is very contemporary. I would say that it is experimental music to a small degree. It is definitely not the stereotypical classical music one would think of, but it is for sure not as conceptual as John Cage’s 4’33”. It is somewhere in the middle of “normal” music and John Cage.
“Firefly” was a very enjoyable piece to play because it was new and exciting. Much like conceptual art, more specifically music, it is an exciting and unique experience. As Niraj has said music is supposed to “evoke some positive emotion or a sense of wonder and beauty” which “Firefly” definitely does for me, whether I am playing it or listening to it.
Much like Niraj, John Cage has interested me greatly because of my deep roots in music and appreciation for it. The discussion in class a couple of weeks ago has utterly changed my perspective about art and music that gives me a new appreciation for composers like John Cage.
Ryan George-Firefly (2008)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkItggGtNJ8
I agree with Natalie about everything! Your perspective on this topic is one that I never considered as I made my own thoughts about John Cage when we spoke about him in class. When I first found out that there was an entire piece of composed music that was just 4 minutes and 33 seconds of silence that symphonies recreate I thought it had to be a joke. I am not a musician in any sense of the word; all though I did dabble in percussion from 3rd to 8th grade in band class. But I think that my experience of hearing and essentially seeing music is an entirely different experience. From what I gather from your post, as you listen to classical music, you are inspired to try to play it and that to me means that you can see a version of the sheet music as the notes are played forming in your mind in real time. I have a very different experience. As I listened to the link Natalie posted to Firefly, I saw pictures, not notes. I imagined Tinkerbell (from Peter Pan) dancing around and moving and flying and doing whatever it is Tinkerbell actually does. The sounds engaged my mind and with every note more and more of this image in my head progressed and I basically watched a movie about Tinkerbell. I think that this idea ties really nicely into what we discussed in class today with The Humement. Dr. Rettberg mentioned how what we read in class redefines the way we read. By reading the words of the Human Document through the masking of the Humement, everything that we gather from the story is redefined. I think the redefining of anything is a very personal thing. I thought that what we read in class today was really cool and inspired and that the images that the author used to cover up the rest of the text was not only beautiful but was also done in a way that told us even more about what the surviving words were saying.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this informative and interesting blog post, my perspective on John Cage and conceptual music has changed. When we listened to 4'33" in class I completely dismissed Cage as a musician. I appreciated the piece as performance art and thought it was an interesting comment on our societal expectations of a concert however, I did not consider 4'33" music in any sense of the word. My limited knowledge of Cage hindered my appreciation for conceptual music. I was quicker to accept the urinal piece Duchamp submitted to an art show as an actual piece of art because it had more tangible properties than the silence of 4'33". I could assimilate the features of the urinal to other art principals. There is symmetry and movement in the lines and shape of the urinal as well as a center of emphasis (the dots in the middle). While most people look at Duchamp's work and see just a urinal, there is more to be gathered from the piece. After reading Niraj's experiences with John Cage's work I realized I had been too quick to dismiss 4'33" and, just as the urinal can be seen as unconventional art, 4'33" can be interpreted as music. As Niraj said, music is meant to "evoke some positive emotion or a sense of wonder and beauty." Even though there is no sound coming from the piano, Cage created something new and different that evokes emotions. Call it what you want, art, music, silence, a urinal, or complete madness, there is something incredible about the unexpected works from Duchamp, Cage, and other conceptual artists.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you Niraj and I understand where you’re coming from, but after doing my research on 4’33 I wouldn’t say John Cage’s work was done with zero effort. Did you know it him almost five years (from 1947) before he finally composed the piece in 1952. And for this reason I believe this piece counts as conceptual art. It took him almost five years thinking about the work itself and the message he wants to pass across to his audience. Before he composed the work he said: “to compose a piece of uninterrupted silence and sell it to Muzak Co. It will be three or four-and-a-half minutes long—those being the standard lengths of "canned" music and its title will be Silent Prayer. It will open with a single idea which I will attempt to make as seductive as the color and shape and fragrance of a flower. The ending will approach imperceptibility.” I’m almost sure, more than half of the people that have listened to 4’33 will not understand what John Cage is talking about here (and neither did I), and would dismiss it saying “all I heard was nothing, and that’s the problem.” But his motives, he put a lot of thought into it and cared about the work so much that he made other versions of this piece. In 1989, 3 years before his death, he made a different version called One. One instructs the performer to build a sound system in the concert hall, so that "the whole hall is on the edge of feedback, without actually feeding back." The content of the piece is the electronically amplified sound of the hall and the audience. So you see, John Cage deserves his credit just like any other conceptual artist. Most of his work was put into the idea behind the work, while the work itself could have been done in a matter of minutes. Thinking about the idea behind the work wasn’t done with zero effort, but arguably creating the silence was.
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