Is banging pots and pans music? Is street noise music? Is silence music?
US composer John Cage, who died in 1992, thought so.
And now, a Victoria Symphony concert entitled Cage 100 will celebrate the influential musician. The concert is part of the Cage 100 festival happening between November 8 and November 22 that will feature art shows, concerts, and retrospective looks at Cage.
Cage, who was interested in how all things made musical sound, prepared piano pieces and orchestral compositions during his offbeat career.
“John Cage did so many different things that influenced the way we think about music and art today,” says Tania Miller, director of the Victoria Symphony.
This concert gives us an opportunity to revisit and celebrate Cage’s ideas, according to Miller.
“He was interested in what we called prepared piano, which is where inside the piano he plays nuts, bolts, feathers, and a piece of rubber to create a variety of different sounds,” she says. “He spent 10 years writing an entire repertoire.”
Another extraordinary thing about Cage was that he explored the idea that almost anything and everything has sounds.
“That idea of his music is that inside a framework of certain timing there is music around us,” she says. “The natural sounds of the people in a room and the sounds of building and street noise outside become spontaneous composition.”
Compared to conventional music, Cage’s compositions are very bizarre. However, by experiencing his music, listeners have a chance to rethink what real music is.
“Cage created a water gong where he hit the gong and put it into a big bucket of water,” she says. “He did things like going on TV shows and playing pots and pans and beating on strange things. People thought he was almost crazy.”
What he was really showing us was that we’ve narrowed our expectations of what music can be. We should be more open to all of the possibility that is around us.
Miller remarks that Cage believes that music shouldn’t be controlled by people. Instead, music should be free and spontaneous. Which is exactly what Cage’s music was.
Cage 100
Saturday, November 17, 8 pm
Alix Goolden Hall
victoriasymphony.ca