Editing John Cage (section)

===1937–1949: Modern dance and Eastern influences===
{{See also|Works for prepared piano by John Cage}}
The newly married couple first lived with Cage's parents in [[Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles|Pacific Palisades]], then moved to Hollywood.{{sfn|Perloff|Junkerman|1994|loc=86}} During 1936–38 Cage changed numerous jobs, including one that started his lifelong association with modern dance: dance accompanist at the University of California, Los Angeles. He produced music for choreographies and at one point taught a course on "Musical Accompaniments for Rhythmic Expression" at UCLA, with his aunt Phoebe.<ref name="Revill 1993, 55">{{harvnb|Revill|1993|loc=55}}</ref> It was during that time that Cage first started experimenting with unorthodox instruments, such as household items, metal sheets, and so on. This was inspired by [[Oskar Fischinger]], who told Cage that "everything in the world has a spirit that can be released through its sound." Although Cage did not share the idea of spirits, these words inspired him to begin exploring the sounds produced by hitting various non-musical objects.<ref name="Revill 1993, 55" />{{sfn|Kostelanetz|2003|loc=43}}

In 1938, on Cowell's recommendation, Cage drove to San Francisco to find employment and to seek out fellow Cowell student and composer [[Lou Harrison]]. According to Cowell, the two composers had a shared interest in percussion and dance and would likely hit it off if introduced to one another. Indeed, the two immediately established a strong bond upon meeting and began a working relationship that continued for several years. Harrison soon helped Cage to secure a faculty member position at [[Mills College]], teaching the same program as at UCLA, and collaborating with choreographer [[Marian van Tuyl]]. Several famous dance groups were present, and Cage's interest in modern dance grew further.<ref name="Revill 1993, 55" /> After several months he left and moved to [[Seattle]], Washington, where he found work as composer and accompanist for choreographer [[Bonnie Bird]] at the [[Cornish College of the Arts]]. The Cornish School years proved to be a particularly important period in Cage's life. Aside from teaching and working as accompanist, Cage organized a percussion ensemble that toured the West Coast and brought the composer his first fame. His reputation was enhanced further with the invention of the prepared piano—a piano which has had its sound altered by objects placed on, beneath or between the strings—in 1940. This concept was originally intended for a performance staged in a room too small to include a full percussion ensemble. It was also at the Cornish School that Cage met several people who became lifelong friends, such as painter [[Mark Tobey]] and dancer [[Merce Cunningham]]. The latter was to become Cage's lifelong romantic partner and artistic collaborator.

Cage left Seattle in the summer of 1941 after the painter [[László Moholy-Nagy]] invited him to teach at the Chicago School of Design (what later became the [[IIT Institute of Design]]). The composer accepted partly because he hoped to find opportunities in Chicago, that were not available in Seattle, to organize a center for experimental music. These opportunities did not materialize. Cage taught at the Chicago School of Design and worked as accompanist and composer at the [[University of Chicago]]. At one point, his reputation as percussion composer landed him a commission from the [[Columbia Broadcasting System]] to compose a soundtrack for a radio play by [[Kenneth Patchen]]. The result, ''The City Wears a Slouch Hat'', was received well, and Cage deduced that more important commissions would follow. Hoping to find these, he left Chicago for New York City in the spring of 1942.

In New York, the Cages first stayed with painter [[Max Ernst]] and [[Peggy Guggenheim]]. Through them, Cage met important artists such as [[Piet Mondrian]], [[André Breton]], [[Jackson Pollock]], and [[Marcel Duchamp]], and many others. Guggenheim was very supportive: the Cages could stay with her and Ernst for any length of time, and she offered to organize a concert of Cage's music at the opening of her gallery, which included paying for transportation of Cage's percussion instruments from Chicago. After she learned that Cage secured another concert, at the [[Museum of Modern Art|Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)]], Guggenheim withdrew all support, and, even after the ultimately successful MoMA concert, Cage was left homeless, unemployed and penniless. The commissions he hoped for did not happen. He and Xenia spent the summer of 1942 with dancer [[Jean Erdman]] and her husband [[Joseph Campbell]]. Without the percussion instruments, Cage again turned to prepared piano, producing a substantial body of works for performances by various choreographers, including Merce Cunningham, who had moved to New York City several years earlier. Cage and Cunningham eventually became romantically involved, and Cage's marriage, already breaking up during the early 1940s, ended in divorce in 1945. Cunningham remained Cage's partner for the rest of his life. Cage also countered the lack of percussion instruments by writing, on one occasion, for voice and closed piano: the resulting piece, ''[[The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs]]'' (1942), quickly became popular and was performed by the celebrated duo of [[Cathy Berberian]] and [[Luciano Berio]].<ref>Reinhardt, Lauriejean. ''John Cage's "The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs"'', 7. [http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/moldenhauer/moldtoc.html Available online].</ref> In 1944, he appeared in [[Maya Deren]]'s [[At Land]], a 15-minute silent experimental film.

Like his personal life, Cage's artistic life went through a crisis in mid-1940s. The composer was experiencing a growing disillusionment with the idea of music as means of communication: the public rarely accepted his work, and Cage himself, too, had trouble understanding the music of his colleagues. In early 1946 Cage agreed to tutor [[Gita Sarabhai]], an Indian musician who came to the US to study Western music. In return, he asked her to teach him about Indian music and philosophy.{{sfn|Cage|1973|loc=127}} Cage also attended, in late 1940s and early 1950s, [[D. T. Suzuki]]'s lectures on [[Zen Buddhism]],{{sfn|Revill|1993|loc=108}} and read further the works of [[Ananda Coomaraswamy|Coomaraswamy]].<ref name="Pritchett, Grove" /> The first fruits of these studies were works inspired by Indian concepts: ''[[Sonatas and Interludes]]'' for prepared piano, ''[[String Quartet in Four Parts]]'', and others. Cage accepted the goal of music as explained to him by Sarabhai: "to sober and quiet the mind, thus rendering it susceptible to divine influences".{{sfn|Cage|1973|loc=158}}

Early in 1946, his former teacher [[Richard Buhlig]] arranged for Cage to meet Berlin-born pianist [[Grete Sultan]], who had escaped from Nazi persecution to New York in 1941.{{sfn|Bredow|2012}} They became close, lifelong friends, and Cage later dedicated part of his ''[[Music for Piano (Cage)|Music for Piano]]'' and his monumental piano cycle ''[[Etudes Australes]]'' to her. In 1949, he received a [[Guggenheim Fellowship]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.gf.org/fellows/john-cage/|title= John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation: John Cage|website=[[Guggenheim Fellowship]]|access-date=March 21, 2024}}</ref>