John+Cage+-+Damon,+Campbell+G,+Kian,+Belle

=DJ CAGE= ==

Summary (Damon did not do this, it was Campbell Giddens)
John Milton Cage Jr. Was born September 5, 1912, he was an American composer, music theorist, writer, and artist. He was a man who was key in the establishment of electroacoustic music, and irregular use of musical instruments. Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde. Critics have lauded him as one of the most influential American composers of the 20th century. He was also instrumental in the development of modern dance. Some of his most famous pieces include ‘4:33’ which was revolutionised his idea of silence in music. Other famous pieces include ‘Water Walks’ where he uses foreign objects such as a bathtub, a radio and a pot of boiling water to create sounds.

John Cage Experimentation (Kian)
Cage spent his life trying to be different from everyone else. Cage first started experimenting with unorthodox instruments, such as household items, metal sheets, and so on. This was inspired by Oskar Fischinger, who told Cage that "everything in the world has a spirit that can be released through its sound." Although Cage did not share the idea of spirits, these words inspired him to begin exploring the sounds produced by hitting various non-musical objects.Cage's "Experimental Composition" classes at The New School have become legendary as an American source of Fluxus, an international network of artists, composers, and designers.

Characteristics Of Chance Music (Belle)
 Chancemusic is composed through chance procedures. There needs to be a rough outline of what instruments or elements are going to be used and the rules or limitations when using them. When writing chance music, a composer leaves many aspects of the composition to chance, but still has to make some important decisions such as determining the length of the piece and specifying or not specifying the instrumentation. Chance procedures can be simple like rolling dice or flipping coins. John Cage, along with Lejaren Hiller, were interested in electronics which led them to use computer programming modelling. Less well known ways of using chance in compositions are using the impurities on the manuscript paper or the location of stars (astrology) to determine where the notes should go. John Cage believed in the ‘liberation of sounds’ and chance music allowed him to do this. Cage’s reason for writing music this way were to get away from the traditional role of composers who were believed as obnoxious people telling everyone what to do, to compose music which was formless and had no structure and for distances to be put between the composer and their music. John Cage's compositions are examples of music where the philosophy and the main ideas behind the compositions become more important than the actual piece itself. Cage’s impacts on chance music
 * The development of early electro-acoustic music
 * Fluxus group -
 * concept art: 4'33": testing[[image:http://cdncache-a.akamaihd.net/items/it/img/arrow-10x10.png link="home#65378005"]] the limits
 * multi-media works: erasing the boundaries between arts
 * music/art based on ideas and principles uncommon in Western culture
 * inspired the works of an entire generation and beyond

Characteristics Of Electronic Music (Campbell G)
As early as 1939 Cage had been interested in electronics. He believed that his piece Imaginary Landscape No. 5 (1952) was the first piece of magnetic-tape music to be created in America. In the 1960s Cage decided that pure electronic music might be boring for a concert audience, since there was nothing to look at. He experimented with placing contact microphones on conventional instruments; once he even placed a mike against his own throat, turned the volume up, and swallowed thunderously. The microphones, with the feedback used as a musical element, produce unbeautiful and often deafening effects. But Cage's belief that man must come to terms with the loud and ugly noises of modern life accords with his belief that if art has a purpose it is to open the mind and senses of the perceiver to life. Cage's music became louder and more dense. One of his works, HPSCHD (produced in collaboration with Lejaren Hiller, finished in 1968), was created with the aid of a computer. It involves a possibility of playing up to 51 audio tapes and up to seven harpsichord solos simultaneously. A computer printout is supplied with the recording, which gives the listener a program for manipulating the controls of his stereo phonograph. Thus the music can still remain indeterminate in performance. Cheap Imitation (1969), based on a piece by the French composer Erik Satie, replaces the original pitches with randomly selected notes.

Analysis Of 4'33 (Damon)

 * The tone colour of 4’33 is quite tense at the start. The beginning of the song is tense. The silence makes an uncomfortable feeling.
 * After dead silence the tone colour is changed after the first movement. This is where people start coughing. This lasts for 13 seconds. It is a welcoming sound to hear the sound of sound. After a bright, deep, atonal laugh from the audience, the texture becomes lighter and brighter. The volume changes from as soft as possible to very loud, becoming dead silent again. The motion is very much binomial.
 * Coughing from the audience creates a dynamic of sudden changes.
 * Dead silence
 * coughing last 1 second cutting the silence.
 * sneeze adding again to the dead silence.
 * The second movement occurs, lasting again, 13 seconds. the pitch rise with the tone colour. It gradually becomes more tense again, after a long period of no light laughter.
 * Dead silence endures all the way to the end. This is the way it ends.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zY7UK-6aaNA