It’s interesting that John Cage recontextualizes music into an experience. I found it particularly meaningful when he said that there is no such thing as silence. It brought to attention that the way we define silence is subjective, relative only to other, louder sounds.
It seems as if the point of 4’33 and John Cage’s other performances were not to be music at all but rather for the idea itself to be a performance that shook up the status quo regarding music and art. From an outsider’s perspective, it looks as if he cares much less about what he is doing sounding good, and cares a lot more about the reaction that others have to his work.
I do find it interesting that Cage was controlling when it came to others’ performances of his pieces, especially since it seems as if the whole point of his work was a liberation of the expectations that had been set up around music. Did he truly believe in his work as a kind of music, that had its own rules and a correct/incorrect way to play it, or was this just a personal flaw of his even though he believed his work to break the status quo of sound?
I can absolutely respect Cage showing dedication to his craft despite the financial instability it brought him. I (like many others in this class, I’m sure) want to be able to dedicate my career to creative works of art, whether it be writing, art, animation, or something else entirely. I want to spend my whole life telling stories through different mediums, and Cage’s unyielding dedication to the art he believed in is very inspiring to me, especially since he got to the point where I am reading about him today. If he can achieve his goals through dedication, it helps encourage me to stay dedicated to my own work in the hopes of reaching a similar level of success.
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