Obligatory Cage post

It seems like John Cage is inescapable these days.  There are two new books, Kyle Gann's on 4'33" and Kenneth Silverman's massive biography, both of which I found fascinating.  There was Alex Ross's piece in the New Yorker and countless blog posts, so I feel it's a duty to write one myself. . .

I had a little realization recently, something that I'm sure isn't unique to me, but that changed how I look at everything cage did from the late 1940's on.  In writing his increasingly aleatoric pieces, and notably 4'33" Cage didn't turn ambient sounds into music, he issued a challenge to the way we listen.

It seems simple, but think about it this way: Two like-minded, musical people could be sitting listening to traffic, listening avidly and actively, and still one could hear pleasant sounds and one could still just hear traffic.  Music effects each of us differently, when I listen to Beethoven I hear something different, and am effected differently, than someone listening to the same record with me.  What Cage did, in essence, was give us permission to listen to traffic and hear something beautiful (or not).

I've spent most of the last ten years scoffing at people who hear new music and dismiss it, but at the same time I listen to most Top 40 radio and dismiss it, doubting it's qualifications as music.  It all comes down to the individual, and all we can do is keep our ears open.  Some people will still hear Water Walk as noise no matter how hard they try to appreciate the sounds, and I will still hear Katy Perry and Taio Cruz as noise, no matter how open my ears.  And I think that as long as my ears are trying and my mind is open Cage would be OK with that.