The John Cageblog

Welcome to my John Cage weblog. One of the most common statements I've encountered when I mention that I enjoy the music of John Cage is, "the man has interesting ideas, but I don't much listen to the music." But why not? True, some of Cage's works are a little bit difficult to approach, but certainly not all of them are quite as unusal as, for example, 4'33", the so-called silent work.

The purpose of this blog will be to offer a perspective on every recorded Cage work I can get my hands on. At present, I have at least one recording of the majority of his output, at least of that subset that has ever been recorded. Hearing live concerts would be ideal or even nessecary for many of Cage's works, but unfortunately that is virtually impossible.

I have no qualifications for doing this other than desire. I am a computer engineer graduate student by trade. I have an awareness of Cage, I have read a biography; I have read several collections of his writings (Silence, A Year From Monday, and a few others). I have no music background whatsoever as a performer; I have never played an instrument. I also have only a minimal grasp of theory, and cannot read music by sight.

My background as a listener is largely devoted top pop music, especially various post-punk bands of the late 70's and modern indie rock, whatever that phrase means anymore.

This is all a long-winded way of saying, "If someone like me can listen to, appreciate, and enjoy the music--the actual music, not just the ideas, then anybody can.

I look forward to sharing this experience with you!