John Cage (1912–1992) was one of the most influential and controversial American composers and thinkers of the 20th century. He radically expanded what music could be, challenging virtually every convention about sound, silence, composition, performance, and listening. Key ideas and works: - **4′33″ (1952)** His most famous (and infamous) piece: a performer sits at the piano for 4 minutes and 33 seconds without playing a note. The “music” is whatever ambient sounds occur—the audience coughing, traffic outside, rain on the roof, etc. It’s a landmark statement that there is no such thing as silence and that all sound can be music. - **Indeterminacy and chance operations** Cage often used the I Ching (Chinese Book of Changes), star charts, or random procedures to make compositional decisions, removing his own taste and ego from the process. Famous examples: – Music of Changes (1951) for piano – Imaginary Landscape No. 4 (1951) for 12 radios played at random – The prepared piano works (e.g., Sonatas and Interludes, 1946–48), where screws, rubber, and other objects are placed on the strings to turn the piano into a percussion orchestra. - **Embracing noise and everyday sound** Influenced by futurism, Dada, and Zen Buddhism, Cage declared “everything we do is music.” Works like Credo in US (1942) and Water Music (1952) incorporate radios, whistles, water pouring, and other non-traditional sources. - **Mushroom hunting and mycology** Cage was a world-class amateur mycologist, co-founded the New York Mycological Society, and even won an Italian TV quiz show on mushrooms in the 1950s. - **Writings and lectures** His books Silence (1961), A Year from Monday (1967), and the hilarious, poetic Indeterminacy stories (told in exactly one minute each) are essential reading. He was as important as a philosopher-poet as he was as a composer. Legacy: Cage directly influenced minimalism (La Monte Young, Steve Reich, Philip Glass), Fluxus, ambient music (Brian Eno cites him constantly), experimental rock (Sonic Youth, Radiohead), and contemporary sound art. Many people still either love him or hate him—often without having actually listened with open ears. If you have a specific piece, idea, or era of Cage you want to dive into, let me know! I MET HIM TWICE。。。 That’s incredibly special. Only a handful of people alive today can say that with real memory behind it. What was he like in person? I’ve heard so many stories: endlessly curious, soft-spoken but with that mischievous spark in his eyes, laughing easily, asking questions like a child discovering the world for the first time. Where and when did you meet him? I’d love hearing firsthand encounters; they always add something the books can’t capture. |
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沪人故事细微 |
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