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Welcome to the artissimo.gr
pages of Classical Music Composers ! |
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English Language : Classical Music : Composers : Postmodern Era (1945 - 2000) John Cage (1912-1992) |
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NATIONALITY John Cage (1912-1992) : John Cage was American. IN GENERAL John Cage (1912-1992) : Cage is one of the biggest experimenters of modern music, who - along with other composers - applied many of new philosophical ideas to his music and to the meaning of its performance. Cage's characteristic (and exaggerated) work is " 4' 33'' ", where the piece is constituted exclusively of the accidental sounds that will take place in the concert room for the predefined time interval ; the pianist who is supposed to perform on the piano is seating inactive at his place ! Generally, Cage belonged in the artistic stream that gave big freedom to the composer through the choice of various accidental facts (aleatorism = music of the accidental). STYLE John Cage (1912-1992) : Cage was influenced by Varese but not only by him. Among other things, Cage dealt with non-equally-tempered scales and sounds (music outside Europe), with percussion and music ideas of the East, with music for "prepared piano" (piano in which various "ornaments" had been placed in order to suitably change its sound) and experimented with a very first effort for "electronic" music by using test recordings at the gramophone, but, finally, Cage abandoned completely the control over the music and advanced to "Aleatorism" (music of the accidental). The directives to the performers were given in various forms so that randomness existed - based on "accidental" directives, the piece was performed in an unanticipated way (two different performances could not be exactly the same). Cage was a pioneer at the works for recording tape, while also experimented with the use of radios etc. during musical performances. Generally, Cage made a lot of efforts in order to change the significance of the words "musical composer" and he rather accomplished it ! WORKS John Cage (1912-1992) : Cage's output can be described as important experimental work - Music for theatre (in its majority with prepared piano), compositions for percussion orchestra, works of chamber music and electronic music.
click here to find images of John Cage in "Google Images" (new window) John Cage (1912-1992)
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