John Cage took a simple approach to music. While Cage believed that music can merely be found anywhere and within any sound, traditionally, music remains described as the art of arranging tones or sounds in a way that produces a composition having unity and continuity (Merriam-Webster). John Cage had a Zen Buddhism philosophy of music, meaning music is everywhere and anything can be interpreted as such (House of Solitude). However, I believe music is only the intentional arrangement of sounds. John Cage traveled around the world and found that he particularly enjoyed most of the Asian cultures. “It was in the last three years of the 1940s that Cage also started to develop an aesthetic of silence” (James). He began to incorporate the ideas of Zen Buddhism into his life, as well as his music. Zen Buddhism stands as the experience in which you sit to become one …show more content…
The idea of silence explains that there is nothing to hear, nothing to create vibrations for a person’s ear drums to feel. ‘Silence’ only occurs in space where there remains no medium for the vibrations to travel through. However, here on Earth, air and water remain the mediums, therefore, I can concur with Cage in that there exists “no such thing as silence”. Comparing this philosophy with the definition of what music should be, then “Mr. Cage’s work fails totally” (Rockwell). Several of Cage’s works were just long periods of silence. If you played a John Cage CD, you might as well have put it in the machine and not even pressed play (Rockwell). Music is supposed to entertain people with its lovely melodies and colorful moods. However, John Cage’s music did not entertain people, it allowed people to entertain themselves. Listening closely to what surrounded them, people need to work for their entertainment, not mindlessly listen to music somebody has already composed. In a way, Cage created an entire new perspective on the way music is seen and
The author Jeannette Walls of the Glass Castle uses the literary element of characterization to further the theme of the individual chapters. Walls, divides the novel into sections which signify different parts of her life. During one of the last sections in the later half of Jeannette Walls life she comes accross the character by the name of Ginnie Sue Pastor. Ginnie Sue is a single mother who works at The Green Lantern (a local brothel) in order to support her family. When Jeannette first comes across Ginnie Sue she thinks to herself, “It was only on the way home that I realized I hadn’t gotten answers to any of my questions. While I was sitting there talking to Ginnie Sue, I’d even forgotten she was a whore,” (Walls 163). Jeannette is referring to her question she had earlier anticipated on asking which related to her
Oxford’s dictionary defines music: as vocal or instrumental sounds or both, combined in such a way as to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion. Music, as a form of expression and communication, comes in many forms and styles: classical, folk, country, rock, and electronic
John Milton Cage Jr. also known as John Cage was born in Los Angeles, California on September 5, 1912. Although he passed away on August 12, 1992 his legacy as an American composer, music theorist, writer, and artist lives on. Not only was he a participant in a wide variety of music genres but he became the father of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments. Cage also became very active in a lot of contemporary and unique artistry and many of his influences can be found in the works of musicians globally. Every great artist has someone or something they can look to as a basis and guideline to start off their own work. In John’s case, he used South/ East Asian cultural components, largely implementing
Most people are familiar with the word "music", however they barely consider the definition of it. After carefully think, everyone has their own opinions on this term and it is hard to have an uniform criterion of music sounds. According to the text book, Michael B. Bakan states five propositions to define the music. The first one is about the tone and the second one talks about the music is organized in some way. The next two are claims that music is human organized and a product of human intention and perception. The last proposition argues music cannot separate from Western culture. Among these propositions, I think the music is a product of human intention and perception is most interesting and worth to discuss. So I assert that the most
Throughout the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, there are various responsibilities meted out to both men and women. In fact, an important theme of this novel is the continuity in the relationship between men and women in regards to both sharing some form of control over the community. However, in terms of definitive power, often a balance between genders is not found, and rather we are shown Macondo as a world most often shaped, and dominated by either a single commanding Matriarch or Patriarch. It is also interesting to note that while most frequently we are only presented with a solitary authoritative figure of a particular gender, when Macondo is at its most prosperous it is controlled not by a single figure but rather a symbiotic partnership between a male and a female.
Originally from Japan, Soyen Shaku was the first Zen master to arrive in America. His followers urged him not to come to a nation that was so ill-mannered and uncultivated and that the Japanese were facing extreme discrimination. Shaku’s countrymen Hirai Ryuge Kinzo “offered pointed examples: the barring of a Japanese student from a university on the basis of his race; the exclusion of Japanese children from the San Francisco public schools; the processions of American citizens bearing placards saying ‘Japs Must Go!’” (Eck 185). After several decades, there was a Zen boom of the 1950s and that was how Buddhism affected western culture, especially in regards to entertainment. “‘Zen’ is “the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese character "chan," which is in turn the Chinese translation from the Indian Sanskrit term "dhyana," which means meditation’” (Lin).
Summary: "The Cage" by Ruth Minsky Sender is a book about a teenage girl who was separated from her mother and brothers when the nazis captured them and sent them to a concentration camp. While she was in the concentration camp, she got sick and one of the Nazi guards took her to a hospital, but they had to go througgh several hospitals because they didn't take jews. After her operation, the doctor had to teach her how to write with her left hand because she couldn't write with her right hand. A russian commander helped her out by giving her food and baths, and she gave her a job that wasn't as hard as the other "prisoners" had. She lived off her mother's quote, "When there is life, there is hope." She believed that and she got through the
Music is far more than the sum of its parts. It can be thought of in a highly mathematical sense, which leaves one in awe of the seemingly endless combinations of rhythm, tone and intervals that a good musician can produce. Admiring music in this way is a lot like admiring an intricate snowflake, or shapes in the clouds; it's beautiful, but at the same time very scientific, based on patterns. All of the aforementioned qualities of music have one thing in common: they can be defined with numeric, specific values. However, the greatest aspect of music lies elsewhere, and cannot be specifically defined with words. It is the reaction that each individual has when they are confronted with their favorite (or least favorite) kind of music.
In this poem “Luxury”, Nikki Giovanni examines the word luxury and by doing this she realizes what it means to her. She realizes having more materialistic things in life isn’t all that we need. We need something that’s going to last forever something that can’t be taken away. So instead of finding contentment in the things we as society find luxurious, she found all the luxury in the world in her soulmate. To Giovanni love is the state of great comfort and extravagant living, meaning it’s more important than fame, money, fast cars and expensive clothes. Love by definition is a strong feeling of deep affection for somebody/something and this is what she felt when she was held that “one evening” (23).
5. that even when there are no strings being plucked by fingers or hands hammering piano keys, still there is music, it is the everyday soundscape that arises from the audience themselves: their coughs, their sights. Cage’s point is that there is no such thing as true silence. The world is alive with musical
Since the earliest days of human civilization music has been a key tool for communication of stories which carried emotions through them. If we think back to our youngest years of life music has surrounded us whether it was from our parents singing us lullabies or from some sort of toy that played music we can say that musical melodies have helped shape or lives one way or another. Once we start growing up and figuring out who we are our musical preferences change; some people like classical and some like punk. We start to befriend people who like the same music as us and eventually we may attend a musical event. Our lives somewhat revolve around the music that we listen to.
Imagine a life without sound, would it not be one value living? All of these completely different parts of music and different styles and arrangements of notes and beats has had the ability to fully alter generations and alter the course of history for various people. Music comes all told completely different forms from hardcore to soft and mellow. As a result of these distinction a method of music exists for each kind of person and has the flexibility to go beyond generations. Music is important to our senses and vital to our needs, so listen up!
John Cage has always been known as a controversial and new age composer. Some say that his pieces lack the very structure that makeup classic forms. I argue that John Cage’s work Living Room Music, despite instrumentation with no set pitch, has conclusive harmonies and is in the style of a Baroque suite. This is a strange concept for some because pitch has become such a focal point around harmonic analysis when in reality it can be determined simply by ensemble texture and dominate features.
Cage was born into a Los Angeles middle class family in 1912. His father was a less than successful inventor -- dabbling in the areas of submarines, medicine, space travel, and electrical engineering -- who instilled in him the idea that "if someone says 'can't', that shows you what to do." (Cage, An Autobiographical Statement) Cage learned how to play the piano as a child and took a liking to Grieg, and even briefly considered becoming a concert pianist. However, when Cage went to college it was to become a writer. He was deeply disillusioned by the conformity he saw in the students:
"…Races condemned to 100 years of solitude did not have a second opportunity on earth." These powerful last words of the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude ring true. The book demonstrates through many examples that human beings cannot exist in isolation. People must be interdependent in order for the race to survive.