Reading Response: John Cage

John Cage is an example of a very smart and talented artist that is also a philosopher. He was so intelligent  and was brought up in a very normal environment in a very well to do family. He was interested in music and noise as an art medium. The story of his life as the son of a wealthy inventor and composer with great grades and a high college education is very interesting to his practices later as an artist. It seemed that his failings as a composer, even though he did compose simple and beautiful pieces, and his rejection of the idea of becoming a man of religion led him to examine things more closely than some of us do. He had a love for sound, just simple and raw sound being the thing that draws people together as a sort of international language. Sound gives people much pleasure as it is and his work drew on the happiness and universal understanding that comes from experiencing sound. This of course could be done in a dramatic and dark way as well for there are some sounds that we know mean trouble, hurt or pain but I think that John Cage wanted to light people up rather than expose darkness. He did a piece 4'33'' that showed the inner workings of an orchestra and the relationship between the conductor and the musicians that is comedic in a way but also very expressive of how music is done and that the sounds of the people themselves could be examines and considered musical as well. His composition "Dream" is a piano piece that I think is really lovely and relaxing. I used to sit as a kid and play on the piano stringing together notes that sounded good to me and that's what his compositional work reminds me of. I never had any trining in the musical field but I always enjoyed doing this sort of thing.  He had talent for pieces that would be a string of sounds that were nice when put together if nothing else. His work has a sort of existentialist theme to it because it invites the listener to realize their own place in the world and the sound that they make and those that surround them. I also enjoyed listening to his ideas on sound and silence in the Video "about silence on youtube. It tells his philosophy behind his work.
Link to "about silence": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcHnL7aS64Y
Link to "Dream":http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExUosomc8Uc
Link to 4'33'': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUJagb7hL0E