My minor critique on the semantics of a bit of advertising hyperbole promoting a pack of cello loops seems to have ballooned into a massive discussion on John Cage, Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Good and Evil. I must have hit a nerve.
“Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear,” George Orwell.
I have been told to shut up and get back in my box – perhaps on the grounds that silence is golden; which brings us neatly back to John Cage…
About fifteen years ago Mike Batt (Wombles) arranged a PR stunt with Cage’s estate whereby they pretended to issue a writ for plagiarism over a composition called A Minute’s Silence credited to Batt/Cage which they claimed was a rip-off of 4’ 33”.
Batt defended the claim insisting that his piece was different not only because it was shorter but also because it wasn’t played by an entire orchestra whereas Cage’s piece wasn’t played by a pianist.
At the bottom of this page, it says it will take me 4 minutes (33) to read this discussion. How does it estimate that, especially since English isn’t my native language?
But I have to agree with Martin Kennedy; using loops to create a musical piece is not composing. I also think tossing coins to pick musical notes is not composing. Cage was not a composer; he was a provocateur, at a time when modern music, being so self-serious, was a prime target for provocateurs.
Long ago he showed up at my University, and I witnessed his performance. He walked around a canoe suspended from the ceiling and hit it randomly in various places. At least I thought it was random; perhaps he had a very specific and orderly way of whacking the canoe, but it certainly looked random. I never heard another recording of the piece.
I don’t think that there is anyone in the entire world who steps into the shower and whistles a John Cage tune.