American composer 

“Everything we do is music." (Classical Composer)(From: 4'33")” 
― John Cage

John cage was an American Avant – grade composer whose inventive compositions and unorthodox ideas profoundly influenced mid 20thcentury music, he was a composer, music theorist, artist and philosopher who leading the post war Avant- Grande movement, initiated the notion of indeterminacy and chance in these respective fields.  Discovering uncharted sounds became Cages trademark; where other composers heard noise, he heard potential. John cage has had countless artistic endeavours and contributions to the art world although no concept is more significant than the one of ‘silence’, he himself considers silence as a very integral part of a piece of music, given equal importance with the sounded notes – there is no such thing as total silence. In cages pieces he never uses ‘absolute silence’, however uses a variety of sounds such as those caused by nature or traffic – thus going unnoticed and aren’t usually regarded as ‘music’.

“there is no such thing as an empty space or an empty time. There is always something to see, something to hear. In fact, try as we may to make a silence, we cannot” – John Cage 

4’33’ was a conceptual work created by Cage, called the “silent piece” although its main purpose was to make people listen. It was ‘an act of framing, of enclosing environmental and unintended sounds in a moment of attention in order to open the mind to the fact that all sounds are music’ (Gann).

Cage wanted to discard inherited structures, open doors to the exterior world, ‘let sounds be sounds’ (cage), he wanted to blur conventional boundaries between art and life. He also liked to experiment, he was radical In his music and liked to ‘break boundaries’, Cage used the chance operations recorded in the I Ching, which was an Ancient Chinese text dating back to around 1000 BC for divination. Cage used this method in his first presentation of chance, ‘Music of Changes’, he used the chance operations recorded in the I Ching by dividing the musical elements into 26 charts, using I Ching’s method of dividing hexagrams, he tossed 3 coins, six times thus allowing chance to determine the elements for the ensemble. He also used this method in his composition ‘Double music’ (1941) combining himself and Lou Harrison. I have thus recorded certain sounds around the city exploring Cage’s theories of determinacy and chance by creating my own variation of the I Ching, to use as a divination system for my final artworks. I have mimicked how cage utilises chance operations to inform sounds, dynamics, durations, tempo and densities of his compositions (Kahn, 1997). I’ve thus created one system that decides the works of density and polyphony and another determining the colours. With the use of ‘radios as instruments’ (Kahn 1997) as stated by Cage, one of my sounds is exploring the use of radio, as the others include the use of wind, rain on leaves, bike, train, ‘roads’. 

I will invite 3 Students up to the front of the room to create their own musical score / artwork whilst listening to my chosen sounds, this will thus become my artwork 'work' of my signs using the influence of my peers. I will place in front of them 6 colours and brushes (texters) of different lengths and thickness as well as a small rock which they may choose to use.

John Cage performed 4’33’’ on the evening of August 29, 1952, Pianist David Tudor sat down at the piano on the small raised wooden stage and performed one of the most controversial pieces of music to date.

4’33’’ is a reminder to embrace your surroundings, to be present. That is, what I’ve tried to portray in my recording, to take in the things around you, allowing the listener to have an open mind, allowing the listener to surpass the limitations of their previous likes, dislikes, preferences, styles. In order for them to achieve a clear free mind and to really take in / on the things, people and scenes going on around them otherwise referred to by Cage as ‘silence’. 

“What is the purpose of writing music? One is, of course, not dealing with purposes but dealing with sounds. Or the answer must take the form of a paradox: a purposeful purposeless or a purposeless play. This play, however, is an affirmation of life--not an attempt to bring order out of chaos nor to suggest improvements in creation, but simply a way of waking up to the very life we’re living, which is so excellent once one gets one’s mind and one’s desires out of its way and lets it act of its own accord.” 
― John Cage, Silence: Lectures and Writings 

I Ching 

I Ching dates back 1000 BC to the Ancient Chinese whom used it for divination 

Cage used this to inform sounds, durations, tempo, dynamics and densities of his compositions 

To use – the user obtains a random number – originally from sorting yarrow stalks but now more commonly from throwing coins or dice. 

The number corresponds to a line which is either strong – yang or weak – yin when 6 are obtained you have a hexagram

My Version of I Ching 

Here I am mimicking John Cage's work by using water colour to represent how I feel when listening to my work, I have used an array of brushes (different thickness/ lengths/ sizes) as well as different colours (in my iChing) to showcases the way in which the sounds made me feel, by showcasing the expression on paper I have been able to demonstrate the density and polyphony.

John Cages work

My representation combining all sounds.

For the students interaction I'm using texters of different thickness's and colours to mimic John Cage's work with water paint, I have decided to use texts in class to reduce mess etc.. here the students chosen can still use different thickness and colours to demonstrate what they feel throughout the sounds.

Here I've included both of the students work, whom I asked to draw whilst I presented my sounds. it was interesting to see the outcome as well as the similarities between their work and my own.

Youtube Link 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=td3DxEP5dFg&feature=youtu.be

Bibliography 

Gann, K. 2010, No such thing as silence: John Cage’s 4’33’’, Ed. 1, Yale University Press, America 

Kahn, D. 1997, John Cage: Silence and Silencing, The Musical Quartlery, vol. 81, no. 4, pp. 556-598

Jensen,G. M. 2009, John Cage, chance operations, and the chaos game: Cage and the I Ching, The Musical Times, Vol. 150, no. 1907, pp. 97-102 

Montague, S.  2004, ‘Classical Music: The Music of Chance’, The Guardian, 16 January, pp. 6-10

Ross, A. 2010, ‘Searching for Silence: John Cage’s art of noise’, The NewYorker, 27 September, viewed 2 September 2019, <https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/10/04/searching-for-silence>