Malcolm Atkins

Cage is dead

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Cage is dead (and Schoenberg is dead although Boulez is still alive).

The problems with the canonisation of the work of an experimentalist.

Abstract
The paper questions why we have made Cage such an authoritative figure about sound and music when
his definition of music does not correspond in any way to any accepted definition. I use his statement that
in terms of constructing music a structure based on durationsis correctwhereas harmonic structure is
incorrect as a basis for debate.
I first contextualise Cages ideas by suggesting their source in
Contemporary ideas of the post war avant-garde
His interest in Eastern philosophy - music is to sober and quiet the mind
His engagement with other art forms
I argue that all he espoused was of his time but his conflation of different ideas was unique to any
musician of his time.
I question his statement that music is only meaningful in the contrast of sound and silence as follows:
This just doesnt equate to what we mean by silence
Cage over privileges silence to ignore other aspects of the sonic environment (such as timbre)
Is Cage an apologist for an unjust capitalist world ?
Even people Cage admired in using silence (such as Morton Feldman) use it as part of an
unfolding sonic construction
Cage did not really embrace all sounds in the way he often advocated for others. He was selective
on what he would allow.
I conclude by emphasising the importance of Cage and the questions he raised but suggest that if we
uncritically accept his ideas we devalue his artistic and philosophical contribution.

Whenever anyone asked him about Zen, the great master Gutei would quietly raise one finger into the
air. A boy in the village began to imitate this behavior. Whenever he heard people talking about
Gutei's teachings, he would interrupt the discussion and raise his finger. Gutei heard about the boy's
mischief. When he saw him in the street, he seized him and cut off his finger. The boy cried and began
to run off, but Gutei called out to him. When the boy turned to look, Gutei raised his finger into the air.
At that moment the boy became enlightened. (Suler, 1997)
People ask what the avant-garde is and whether it is finished. It isnt. There will always be one. The
avant-garde is flexibility of mind. And it follows like day, the night from not falling prey to government

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and education. Without the avant-garde nothing would get invented. If your head is in the clouds keep
your feet on the ground. If your feet are in the ground keep your head in the clouds. (Montague,1985,
p.210)

Introduction
I will talk about Cage because he is more than any other composer associated with the notion of silence
albeit his own continually revised definition of this term and because the legacy of his work has
contributed to the argument that erupted in 2012 in the centenary of his birth when 250 composers,
performers, administrators and supporters of contemporary music, headed by Sir
Harrison Birtwistle and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies criticised Sound and Music the
newly consolidated funding body for contemporary music for failing to support
traditional composition and giving a bland and unfocused endorsement of sound art (The
Holst Foundation).
I will start from a statement of John Cage apparently made in 1961 and assess its relevance to the
structuring of sound in our time. This was quoted by Pauline Oliveros as the basis for her piece From
Unknown Silences (1996). I cant find the source in the work credited although there are a number of
similar statements by Cage dotted through his works so I believe it is accurate even if it may be a
paraphrase of Cage :
Sound has four characteristics: pitch, timbre, loudness, and duration.
The opposite and necessary coexistent of sound is silence. Therefore, a
structure based on durations (rhythmic: phrase and time lengths) is
correct (corresponds with the nature of the material), whereas harmonic
structure is incorrect (derived from pitch, which has no being in
silence). Cage 1961 quoted in Oliveros 1
This is a radical reappraisal of the function of sound in relation to its structuring in music, it is about the
physics of sound as opposed to a more traditional Western view of music as an agreed method of
communication where harmony, melody and rhythm comprise communicative conventions within a genre.
I will argue that like much of Cages work this is an invaluable prompt to reconsider how we think of
music but that it is inherently problematic because it just doesnt correspond to what people mean by
music. It is a personal opinion which is supported by no real evidence or logical argument. It works as part
of a poetical vision of the role of music which supports a personal philosophy that combines Eastern
philosophy with liberal economics.
1

A longer quote from Fetterman (1996,p. 19) gives more context:

Silence to my mind is as much a part of music as sound. Now, starting with the concept, we go to the accepted qualities of
music pitch, timbre, volume and duration. Which of these partakes of both silence and sound ? Only duration. But silence and
sound have duration.
Therefore I take my sounds when I have decided what they are going to be and place them in this background of silence. This
reduces the structure of the composition to pure rhythm, nothing else.
Also, I make no attempt to say anything. Beethoven, wrote from a subjective emotion which he objectified in his work.
It,and the sounds I use, exist solely for their own sake unrelated to anything else (Silence, Sound in Composition Are Stressed
1951)
There is also a similar quote in Silence in the Lecture on Satie (Cage, 2004, p. 80: . 'If you consider that sound is characterized
by its pitch, its loudness, its timbre, and its duration, and that silence that is the opposite and, therefore, the necessary partner of
sound, is characterized only by its duration, you will be drawn to the conclusion that, of the four characteristics of the material
of music, duration, that is, time length, is the most fundamental. Silence cannot be heard in terms of pitch or harmony: it is
heard in terms of time length'

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For this reason the uncritical canonisation of Cages work and statements can be problematic. A statement
made by a unique outsider at a particular time in response to particular concerns of that time which was
designed to question established beliefs is not a valid recourse to replace those beliefs. Because Cages
work and philosophy were so linked it is dangerous to canonise his work and replicate it through
institutionally funded cover bands because his work carries philosophical ideas which need to be
questioned. Where cover bands replicate popular music of the 50s and 60s this is (fortunately) not
accompanied with inane philosophical pronouncements of Mick Jagger or Paul McCartney or Pete
Townshend. When people cover Cardew his Maoist rantings are politely forgotten. Cages ideas are more
enigmatic and often charmingly expressed and they have to be engaged with by anyone who performs his
music. But they do deserve serious questioning because they are explicit in all he does.
This situation is itself exacerbated by the commodification of learning where different institutions support
different brand names and approaches. Musical institutions have always been liable to fanatical
codification of practice as the relentless application of total serialism in musical institutions of the 1960s
demonstrated. This is partly due to the hierarchical nature of music making in the West which Cage did
challenge. But it is also due to the collaborative nature of music making which leads to groups of
musicians adopting mutually beneficial approaches which create their particular bases of power
something that happens far less in the visual arts where collaboration is more problematic. Ironically,
Cage and the experimentalists who followed him were generally barred from musical institutions until
their eventual canonisation when their work would be grant funded for performance 2.

Why did Cage develop his particular ideas on sound and silence ?
I would identify three key areas of influence on Cage: contemporary concerns of the avant-garde; his
personal philosophy; his particular interest in other art forms (most notably visual art and dance). I am
taking the avant-garde as including Cage in his early career but following Nyman in seeing him as part of
an experimental music movement from the 1950s.
01 Cage and trends within the avant-garde
The modernist challenge to the legacy of Romanticism in music had led to the following techniques. All
present in Cage:
I will summarise these by list but talk about them in more depth if anyone is interested.
Challenging diatonic organisation
Challenging teleological development
Use of any noise.
Use of parallel sound worlds
Use of extended techniques and modification of instruments
Challenging repetition or undermining it by excess
Use of processes to structure sound including chance techniques
Challenging personal expression and the emotive power of music
Challenging diatonic organisation
2

Nyman,1999 (p. XV in 1972.. experimental music; was a minority sport, played in generally non-musical spaces in front of
disciples drawn more likely from fine art, dance o film worlds than from music; was despised, ignored or cavalierly used as raw
material by the then-dominant avant-garde, and the cultural institutions who supported it

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Schoenberg and the Second Viennese School had effectively turned out the lights as Webern declared
when they created music without tonal centre. Schoenberg created serialism to replace diatonic
organisation of sound and later taught Cage whose early works were influenced by Schoenberg.
The idea of using a defined process to create a work rather than intuitively working within boundaries
was a post-war extension of Schoenbergs ideas as he saw himself as an artist who composed intuitively
even within the strictures of serialism. Total serialism was the depersonalised result of this. Feldman
summaries the result of this as follows: What music rhapsodizes in todays cool language, is its own
construction. The fact that Boulez and Cage represent opposite extremes of modern methodology is not
what is interesting. What is interesting is their similarity. In the music of both men, things are exactly what
they are no more, no less. In the music of both men, what is heard is indistinguishable from its process
The duality of precise means creating indeterminate emotions is now associated only with the past (quoted
in Nyman,1999, p. 2)
Challenging teleological development
Satie (who Cage frequently promoted) had challenged the idea of music building to an inevitable climax
and of unfolding a narrative. He created small pieces that go nowhere (deliberately). Webern also created
miniatures The Bagatelles for string quartet many of which are less than a minute long.
Use of any noise.
The use of a wider palette of sounds which included noise was initiated by the futurists . There had been
some experimentation around this by Mahler who incorporated a range of sounds in his symphonies as
well as Ives
Satie had used real world sounds (a revolver for instance in Relache)
Use of parallel sound worlds
Ives had explored running different musics in parallel in the same piece.
Use of extended techniques and modification of instruments
Cowell (who taught Cage) had experimented with using the inside of the piano. Russolo had explored
creating new instruments
Challenging repetition or undermining it by excess
Webern and Schoenberg had explored stating ideas with no repetition hence the brevity of some of
Weberns atonal pre-serial works. Satie created works such as Vexations which were designed for endless
repetition.
Use of process to structure sound including chance techniques
As often pointed out there are examples of use of chance music in Mozarts dice piece. Contemporaries of
Cage also used chance which was a natural choice for those seeking to avoid egotistical expression.
Challenging personal expression and the emotive power of music
Webern created beautiful detached and self-contained sound worlds carefully constructed and using
traditional canonic processes with serialism in works such as Symphony.

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The post-war avant-garde took Weberns ideas further surely as part of a rejection of all that had led to
the second world war. They were creating a new scientifically beautified world which eschewed Romantic
lyricism and Romantic egotism - although ironically one of the most popular works from the 1940s is a
series of songs by a German who had worked under the Nazis Strauss Four Last Songs of 1948
perhaps indicating the way Romanticism could not be eradicated by the new composers
Cage quoted Satie (2004, p.82) on simplicity in expression as follows:
It (LEsprit Nouveau) teaches us to tend towards an absence (simplicite) of emotion and an inactivity
(fermete) in the way of prescribing sonorities and rhythms which lets them affirm themselves clearly, in a
straight line from their plan and pitch, conceived in a spirit of humility and renunciation.
02 Cage, mysticism and eastern philosophy
In general the avant-garde (Schoenberg, Berg, Webern before the second world war Boulez and
Stockhausen as Cages contemporaries) have tended to continue the role of the composer as Romantic
artist. The composer was still communicating a personal vision to an audience even if that was mediated
through the use of process in some way. . Cage became aware of and staunchly opposed to this in his
work.
For Cage this was part of a philosophical shift from using the organisation of sound to communicate to
one of using music to sober and quiet the mind thus rendering it susceptible to divine influences.
Please play Extract 01 purpose of music (extract from Cott,1963)
Whether this philosophical shift in his approach to music was responsible for his interest in silence or
vice-versa the move from intention determined Cages compositional approach from 1951 and the works
such as the silence piece of 1952 which he is most famous for 3.
In fact his definition of silence went through a series of stages which culminated in this term bearing little
relation to its meaning in general parlance, ultimately equating silence to sounds which lacked
intentionality. As with Cages use of the term music there seems to be a consistent revision of terms to
meet an ulterior spiritual purpose. Rather than just saying, as Wittgenstein would have, that language is
not sufficient for our needs, or that language is about agreed uses for terms he attempts to promote a
spiritual agenda through an alternative use of terms.
03 Cage and other art forms
Cage was continually engaged with other art forms alongside music. Much of his music was created in
collaboration with dance but he was also influenced by approaches in visual art which enabled him and his
circle to adopt new approaches to traditional compositional role of pulling strings at a distance, he was
also aware of the importance if theatrical presentation.

His ideas that music was not to express meaning or intention is also an extension of ideas expressed in
the 19th century in the dispute between followers of Brahms (who felt that music could not express
anything other than its own meaning i.e. no meaning that could be translated into words) and followers
of Wagner who saw music as supporting and enhancing linguistic or narrative meaning (as in Strausss
interminable tone poems).

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For his circle the interest in visual art (and Feldman testifies to this in all his essays and comments
quoted Nyman,1999, p. 51) led to different approaches to organising sound through imitation of mobiles;
graphic scores; documenting of equipment rather than traditional notation etc
His creation of the silent piece could be seen as following the example of Rauschenberg. In his article on
Rauschenberg (2004, p.98) he says: To Whom it May Concern: The white paintings came first; my silent
piece came later.
Satie declared it was painters who taught me the most about music (Volta,1994, p. 8)

All the components of Cages aesthetic attitude and all the compositional techniques he used were rooted
in his time and traditions around him including the American adoption of oriental philosophy as well as
traditions of mysticism expressed by Thoreau.
What was unique about Cage was simply the configuration of them in one individual and the radical
philosophy that he discovered from these diverse influences. Clearly his projection of personality in
supporting his work was important. He was always available to discuss his work and ironically became
one of the only composers of his time who could survive through the sales of his work.
Also, as documented in Ross The Rest is Noise cold war politics in America in the 1950s led to a serious
propagation of new music and art. The freer and more iconoclastic the more it contrasted with the
constraints of Soviet realism. Cage was operating at a fortunate time for the avant-garde.

Is this statement valid in any way ?

Because Cage has had so much of an influence on all the arts and because he is such an engaging and
charismatic anti-establishment figure we tend to sympathise with him in the attacks that have been made
on him. Perhaps in this he fulfils the Hollywood promoted archetype of the individual triumphing against
the establishment.
I will attempt to focus on his arguments about sound and the problems with it.
Criticism 01
The main criticism of this statement (and of Cages approach to music) must be that it is essentially
meaningless as an approach to composition as generally understood. In general understanding music
communicates from musician to audience through agreed conventions of the organisation of sound which
can include silence but tends to privilege the units of communication whether pitch or timbre or
dynamics or silence between sounds
In a sense it redefines what music is and if the definition of a word is in accepted use then Cage is not
referring to music when he says its purpose it to quiet the mind rather than to express an artistic vision or
to give any implicit or explicit message. The following explains his position further:

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Please play Extract 02 the basic musical experience is the absence of music
Cott,1963)

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(extract from

But is Cage talking about music or a new discipline ? If his musical world is for a purpose that was not
shared by more than a few other composers and listeners was it just a form of sound art ? It could still be
more artistically valid than traditional composition of his time but is it possible to talk about music outside
of communication and does Cages work communicate effectively anyway because his spiritual agenda is
implicit in what he does (and was frequently proclaimed to his audience) ?
A more conventional approach to music is that genres of music use agreed methods and conventions of
communication and these tend to involve pitch and harmonic rhythm. Silence is important in phrasing
pitch and harmonic development. But to define sound and hence musical construction in terms of silence
is as meaningless as saying that movement is defined by stillness and that as a result choreography should
be structured entirely by the contrast of stasis and motion; or that image is entirely dependant in the
contrast of light and dark and that therefore construction of a painting should be based entirely on this.
Clearly stasis, darkness and silence are important in all these arts but the method of communication of the
arts is based on agreed conventions which incorporate this.
The following statement by MacGilchrist in The Master and his Emissary reflects the way Cages ideas
have been incorporated into contemporary thought but the definition still retains what is seen as traditional
in music and emphasises a specific role for silence in music rather than the significant role that Cage
espouses:
Music consists entirely of relations, betweenness. The notes mean nothing in themselves: the tensions
between the notes, and between notes and the silence with which they live in reciprocal indebtedness, are
everything. Melody, harmony and rhythm each lie in the gaps, and yet betweenness is only what it is
because of the notes themselves. Actually the music is not just in the gaps any more than it is just in the
notes: it is in the whole that the notes and the silence make together. (Macgilchrist, 2010 , p. 72)

Criticism 02
Another problem is that if the West has over-privileged pitch Cage could be over-privileging silence.
Some music Buddhist chant perhaps or Shakuhachi music does use timbre extensively to maintain
variety over stretches of sound. We could argue that purity of sound is a particularly Western art music
approach and that Cage has fallen for that in failing to recognise the significance of timbre
Dynamics have also been of importance in the past. Structural dynamics are key to the works of the First
Viennese School think of any Mozart symphony or piano concerto and of the invention o the pianoforte
which parallels this interest.
Some works Tenneys On Never Having Written a Note for Percussion use dynamics on continuous
sound this is also a technique in some minimalist works such as the way Glass adds in extra
instruments to vary the sound of a line where the notes are constant.
Would Cage have been more accurate if he had said that any of the components of sound can be used to
structure sound and that in different genres different aspects have come to be recognised as significant to
structuring and communicating between musician and audience ?
Cage could argue that all the music I have discussed above is still about communication and intention to
communicate. If so we still have to be convinced of the argument that music is not about communication.

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The problem here is that Cage was communicating. He was communicating a spiritual vision which may
have been delivered indirectly but was still delivered through performance or even recording. He was
employing an intentional lack of intention by the act of creating sound for dissemination. He was also
proselytising his beliefs to support that dissemination.
If a composer such as Prt or Messiaen attempts to draw a composer to spiritual reflection through their
intentional construction of a sound world is that ultimately different to what Cage is trying to achieve
through indirect means ?

Cage would distinguish what he creates from the work of Messiaen and Prt by saying they create
objects whereas he is demonstrating process. But isnt the performance as framed by applause in a
concert hall a discrete object ? Zappa once declared ( in relation to Cage) that what makes a work
of art is the act of putting a frame around it. It is objectified by the social convention of the artist
declaring it to be art by framing it as art. Whatever that object demonstrates it is still an object.
Cage would counter by saying that in his work he usually refers to what he was doing for his own
purpose. The music was to quiet his mind. Others could subscribe to this but his starting point was
himself. But if this is the case isnt he continuing the legacy of the Romantic artist in pursuing a solitary
path of expression even if the method he uses are radical ? Besides which he performed his music to a
paying public was this opportunism or did he believe he had something to share ?
Criticism 03
In the Lecture on Something Cage expands his concept of silence to compare the way sound is immanent
in silence (and vice versa) in the same way that life is immanent in death.
The acceptance of death is the source of all life. So that listening to this music (Feldmans) one takes as
a springboard the first sound that comes along; the first something springs into nothing and out of that
nothing arises the next something; etc. like an alternating current. Not one sound fears the silence that
extinguishes it. And no silence exists that is not pregnant with sound' (Cage,2004, 128 ff)
In Experimental Music(ibid. p. 12) he declares that the purpose of writing music is a purposeful
purposelessness of a purposeless play. This play, however is an affirmation of life not an attempt to bring
order out of chaos nor to suggest improvements in creation
This spiritual acceptance of silence and all sound as part of life (which is so excellent once one gets ones
mind and ones desires out of its way and lets it act of its own accord (ibid. ) is at the same time
accompanied by an acceptance of human misery. In Four Statements on the Dance (ibid. p 93) Cage
reports his discussion with another composer as follows:
..I enjoyed the music, but I didnt agree with that program note about there being too much pain in the
worldI think theres just the right amount.
On the one hand we could see Cage as a benign acceptor of human frailty in the tradition of an artist such
as Mozart but on the other we could see him as an apologist for the inequalities of the free market system
from which he as an able self-publicist was able to benefit.
Cardew in Stockhausen serves Imperialism criticises Cage for his refusal to see art in Marxist terms and
engage with social problems and class issues.

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Although Cardews Maoist phase is generally ignored for its embarrassing references to the disgraced
leader there is something odd in Cages attempt to link his music to the world but his refusal to deal with
the problems of the world although his position is consistent with a Zen view
Cardew discusses Cages reception in 1972 as follows: What happens nowadays is that
revolutionary students boycott Cages concerts at American universities, informing
those entering the concert hall of the complete irrelevance of the music to the
various liberation struggles raging in the world
Criticism 04
In the Lecture on Something Cage examples Feldmans use of silence in his work.
However, Feldmans work does tend to follow an intuitive path where his intention is apparent in the
structuring. His use of silence is part of the full tapestry of construction that involves all elements of
sound. Feldmans work seems to constitute discrete and self-contained objects within the aesthetic
traditions of Western art that Cage was rejecting ( as also do Weberns works which he admired so much
and even the works of Satie).
I cant think of anyone Cage admired who followed the same path as himself in music although we may
be able to find parallels in other art forms.
Criticism 05
A further criticism of Cages development of his notions of silence is of the limits he imposed to the
sounds that were admissable. Kahn in Silence and Silencing argues that while venturing to the sounds
outside music, his ideas did not adequately make the trip; the world he wanted for music was a select one,
where most of the social and ecological nose was muted and where other more proximal noises were
suppressed (1997 , p.556).
Khan argues(p. 558) that Cage ultimately declared silence to be all the sound we dont intend. There is no
such thing as absolute silence. Therefore silence may very well include sounds and more and more in he
twentieth century does, The sound of jet planes, of sirens etc
However Kahn goes on to point out the problems Cage had in being disinterested enough to open his
mind to all sound: his dislike of The German Romantic tradition and much in the whole Western art
tradition; his dislike of jazz for ego-driven improvisation, measured time, orature an collectivism; his
dislike of commercial music and muzak. He was not showing an openness to all sound but making value
judgements as to what was acceptable. These value judgements were linked to his ideas that music was
about bettering oneself and were linked to an anti-commercialist spiritual outlook Half-intellectually and
half-sentimentally, when the war came along, I decided to use only quiet sounds. There seemed to be no
truth, no good,in anything big in society. But quieter sounds were like loneliness, or love or friendship.
Pemanent, I thought, values, independent at least from Life, Time and Coca-Cola (Kahn, 1997, p. 577)
Cages rejection of jazz has been taken up by George Lewis who argues that Cage was reflecting a white
Eurological perspective on Afrological music through a failure within white culture to understand black

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music (Lewis has also commented on how well acquainted African Americans are with the concept of
silence).
He asserts that Cage misunderstood improvisation and collective working in African American music
because he interpreted it through comparison to European improvisation in art music of the nineteenth
century such as of Liszt, Chopin or Paganini. Lewis argues that from the 1950s composers began to
experiment with open forms and with more personally expressive systems of notation (Lewis, 2004A, p
131 ff )and how this corresponds to the recognition of jazz as a valid art form.
Lewis sees improvisation within an Afrological perspective as involving collaboration to resolve agreed
problems as well as group communication. The heuristic element is in his view what experimental
composers have attempted to achieve in creating process based music which the performer explores. He
examples Alvin Lucier. In an Afterword to Improvised Music after 1950 he argues that contrary to the
composers protestations Luciers piece Vespers with its emphasis on analysis, exploration, discovery and
response to conditions becomes the purest, most utterly human form of improvisation, expressive of its
fundamental nature as a human birthright (Lewis, 2004B, p 170). If we accept Lewis view then the
African traditions of music making are closer in ideology to the philosophy that Cage espoused of
removing the ego from performance because of their basis in collective working. Perhaps Cage was far
more constrained by the legacy of European Romanticism than he was aware.

Conclusions
I have looked at a particular statement of Cage and explained its context and its obvious failings.
This is not to denigrate the performance of his work but it is to take up the questions he raised in his work
in his time and assess their relevance to ours.
The legacy of Cage is evident in so much work that continues to explore the questions he raised about how
we should structure sound, how far we should include everyday sound in constructed sound, what is the
purpose of music.
I have the following reservations about that legacy.
Cage was promoting a particular philosophical world view in all his work from 1952 onwards. At its worst
when I experience this as spiritual pretension in sound art (especially covers of work by Cage or
imitations) I feel patronised and bored. I can go for a walk and experience real sounds and the real world.
Why does someone need to show me how to do this ? The indirect nature of what can appear to be smug
superiority can be much more irritating than the direct spiritual message of composers such as Tavener and
Prt who could argue that they work in traditions that remove the ego anyway (Prt s refusal to write
anything different seems to confirm this)
The rejection of the legacy of Romanticism by Cage was a personal choice that reflected attitudes of his
time. The rejection of emotive qualities in music was significant in the avant-garde and in experimental
music for a long time. However I do not think we need to continue this any further. In improvised music I
still feel the presence of the non-idiomatic police those who seek a tough modernist sound world with no
unnecessary frills. However, to my mind, to deny the lyrical in musical expression is to lessen its scope.

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Further to this point, the composers who I would choose to listen to who come from the experimental
tradition are Feldman and Skempton (who I would see as the most important composer in Britain today).
Both of these composers can engage with the unfolding of line and the careful structuring of their work for
its emotive effect (without prescribing a particular emotion). I would describe their work as beautiful. In
this sense their aesthetic has gone far beyond the limitations that Cage set himself.
The rejection of improvisation and of African American traditions seems to be a serious failing in Cage.
Would it not have helped him sober his mind to try and understand the approaches to music of different
cultures ? An interesting example would be the Indonesian idea that a musical performance should be busy
rame. It allows no time for calm reflection but fulfils a significant social purpose.
Finally there is a danger in totally underestimating what is needed to create a musical work if Cages ideas
are followed without the discipline he showed. Cage followed a particular path but did it with total
dedication and concentration over a prolonged period of time. His engagement with sound was considered
and justified in endless debate and was reached from an understanding of a broader musical culture (even
if he rejected much of that). His debate and argument has helped set up a framework for unthinking
replication of his ideas (just as previously there has been unthinking repetition of classical, Romantic and
avant-garde ideas). However the danger with following Cage is that musicians lessen their allowed
vocabulary before they start creating music and have not the skill set that enabled Cage to make the
choices that he did.

Bibliography
Cage, J. (2004) Silence, London, Calder and Boyars.
Cott, J. (1963) John Cage Interviewed by Jonathan Cott [online] at
http://ubumexico.centro.org.mx/sound/cage_john/var/Cage-John_Interview_Jonathan-Cott_1963.mp3
(Accessed Sept 2013)
Fetterman, W. (1996) John Cages Theatre Pieces, London, Harwood.
The Holst Foundation An Open Letter to Sound and Music and Arts Council England[online] at
http://www.holstfoundation.org/index.php?pr=Open_Letter_to_SAM_and_ACE (Accessed Sept 2013)

Kahn, D. (1997). John Cage: Silence and silencing. The Musical Quarterly, 81(4), 556-598.

Lewis, G. (2004a) Improvised music after 1950:Afrological and Eurological Perspectives, in Fischlin, D.
and Heble, A., eds. The other side of nowhere: jazz, improvisation, and communities in dialogue, United
States, Wesleyan University Press, pp. 131-162.

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