MUAR 211 CAIN 1

Listening to Historic Voices, Activity #4: John Cage, guru of the avant garde
instructions
Please read the assigned article (John Cage, An Autobiographical Statement), view and listen to the suggested
videos and musical works, and prepare the following questions for breakout discussions on Friday 9 April and
as potential discussion questions for the Final Exam. The most important questions are marked by an *.

What was Cage’s relationship with the great Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg?
Why did Schoenberg tell Cage that he would never be able to write music?
How does Cage describe Schoenberg’s conception of harmony in music?

What does Cage mean by micro-macrocosmic rhythmic structure?

*Cage writes that he “could not accept the academic idea that the purpose of music was communication.”
What explanations of music’s purpose did Cage prefer (first full paragraph, page 2), and where did he
encounter these alternative conceptions of music?

*What precisely is the prepared piano?

*What non-Western European philosophies and/or religious practices have had the most influence on
Cage’s conception’s of art?

According to Cage’s description of his first “happening” (middle of page 3), what IS a happening? The
following video provides excerpts from a happening enacted by German students in 2010. All works performed
here are by John Cage. Check it out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2uW5qpB9WE

What did Cage hear when he visited the anechoic chamber at Harvard University? Was it silent?

What is Cage’s masterpiece 4’33”? Find a few performances of the piece on YouTube. Which realization of
the work do you prefer? What do the variety of versions suggest about the intended scoring of the piece?
*Is 4’33” music? Was Cage a composer when he wrote it? Why or why not? What is the point of this
piece from the perspective of the composer himself?

Watch this modern performance (by Paul Schuette) of Cage’s Water Walk?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbXAMC5FdP8
Performance of Water Walk with scrolling score: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-h-M0UWxDA
Here’s an optional one (low quality) with Cage himself performing the work on television.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXOIkT1-QWY
*Is Water Walk music? Why or why not? What seems to be the point of this piece from the composer’s
perspective?

What is the ideal relationship between music and dance according to Cage, at least in his own works?

*What does Cage mean by “A music that transports the listener to the moment where he is?” Does a
work like 4’33” achieve this goal? If so, how?

*How does Cage describe percussion music? Why does he think it is important? What can it teach us?