Editing John Cage (section)

==Music==
{{See also|List of compositions by John Cage}}

===Early works, rhythmic structure, and new approaches to harmony===
Cage's first completed pieces have been lost. According to the composer, the earliest works were very short pieces for piano, composed using complex mathematical procedures and lacking in "sensual appeal and expressive power."{{sfn|Pritchett|1993|loc=6}} Cage then started producing pieces by improvising and writing down the results, until Richard Buhlig stressed to him the importance of structure. Most works from the early 1930s, such as ''[[Sonata for Clarinet (Cage)|Sonata for Clarinet]]'' (1933) and ''Composition for 3 Voices'' (1934), are highly [[Chromaticism|chromatic]] and betray Cage's interest in [[counterpoint]]. Around the same time, the composer also developed a type of a tone row technique with 25-note rows.{{sfn|Pritchett|1993|loc=7}} After studies with Schoenberg, who never taught [[dodecaphony]] to his students, Cage developed another tone row technique, in which the row was split into short motives, which would then be repeated and transposed according to a set of rules. This approach was first used in ''Two Pieces for Piano'' ({{circa|1935}}), and then, with modifications, in larger works such as ''Metamorphosis'' and ''Five Songs'' (both 1938).

[[File:Sonatas-interludes-sonata3graph.gif|upright=1.35|thumb|right|Rhythmic proportions in ''Sonata III'' of ''Sonatas and Interludes'' for prepared piano]]
Soon after Cage started writing percussion music and music for modern dance, he started using a technique that placed the rhythmic structure of the piece into the foreground. In ''[[Imaginary Landscape No. 1]]'' (1939) there are four large sections of 16, 17, 18, and 19 bars, and each section is divided into four subsections, the first three of which were all 5 bars long. ''[[Construction (Cage)|First Construction (in Metal)]]'' (1939) expands on the concept: there are five sections of 4, 3, 2, 3, and 4 units respectively. Each unit contains 16 bars, and is divided the same way: 4 bars, 3 bars, 2 bars, etc. Finally, the musical content of the piece is based on sixteen motives.{{sfn|Nicholls|2002|loc=71–74}} Such "nested proportions", as Cage called them, became a regular feature of his music throughout the 1940s. The technique was elevated to great complexity in later pieces such as ''Sonatas and Interludes'' for prepared piano (1946–48), in which many proportions used non-integer numbers (1¼, ¾, 1¼, ¾, 1½, and 1½ for ''Sonata I'', for example),{{sfn|Pritchett|1993|loc=29–33}} or ''[[A Flower]]'', a song for voice and closed piano, in which two sets of proportions are used simultaneously.<ref>Notes in the score: ''A Flower''. [[Edition Peters]] 6711 (1960)</ref>

In late 1940s, Cage started developing further methods of breaking away with traditional harmony. For instance, in ''String Quartet in Four Parts'' (1950) Cage first composed a number of ''gamuts'': chords with fixed instrumentation. The piece progresses from one ''gamut'' to another. In each instance the ''gamut'' was selected only based on whether it contains the note necessary for the melody, and so the rest of the notes do not form any directional harmony.<ref name="Pritchett, Grove"/> ''Concerto for prepared piano'' (1950–51) used a system of charts of durations, dynamics, melodies, etc., from which Cage would choose using simple geometric patterns.<ref name="Pritchett, Grove"/> The last movement of the concerto was a step towards using chance procedures, which Cage adopted soon afterwards.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Pritchett|first=James|date=Fall 1988|title=From Choice to Chance: John Cage's Concerto for Prepared Piano|journal=[[Perspectives of New Music]]|volume=26|number=1|pages=50–81|doi=10.2307/833316 |jstor=833316 }}</ref>

===Chance===
[[File:King Wen (I Ching).svg|thumb|upright=1.15|[[I Ching divination]] involves obtaining a hexagram by [[random generation]] (such as [[Coin flipping|tossing coins]]), then reading the chapter associated with that hexagram.]]

A chart system was also used (along with nested proportions) for the large piano work ''Music of Changes'' (1951), only here material would be selected from the charts by using the ''I Ching''. All of Cage's music since 1951 was composed using chance procedures, most commonly using the ''I Ching''. For example, works from ''Music for Piano'' were based on paper imperfections: the imperfections themselves provided pitches, coin tosses and ''I Ching'' hexagram numbers were used to determine the accidentals, clefs, and playing techniques.{{sfn|Pritchett|1993|loc=94}} A whole series of works was created by applying chance operations, i.e. the ''I Ching'', to [[star chart]]s: ''Atlas Eclipticalis'' (1961–62), and a series of etudes: ''Etudes Australes'' (1974–75), ''[[Freeman Etudes]]'' (1977–90), and ''[[Etudes Boreales]]'' (1978).<ref name="Nicholls 2002, 139">{{harvnb|Nicholls|2002|loc=139}}</ref> Cage's etudes are all extremely difficult to perform, a characteristic dictated by Cage's social and political views: the difficulty would ensure that "a performance would show that the impossible is not impossible"{{sfn|Perloff|Junkerman|1994|loc=140}}—this being Cage's answer to the notion that solving the world's political and social problems is impossible.<ref>Pritchett, James. 1994. "[http://www.rosewhitemusic.com/cage/texts/freeman.html John Cage: Freeman Etudes]", CD liner notes to: John Cage, ''Freeman Etudes (Books 1 and 2)'' ([[Irvine Arditti]], violin), Mode 32. (Accessed August 14, 2008)</ref> Cage described himself as an anarchist, and was influenced by [[Henry David Thoreau]].{{efn|1=Cage self-identified as an anarchist in a 1985 interview: "I'm an anarchist. I don't know whether the adjective is pure and simple, or philosophical, or what, but I don't like government! And I don't like institutions! And I don't have any confidence in even good institutions."<ref>[http://www.ubu.com/papers/cage_montague_interview.html "John Cage at Seventy: An Interview"] by [[Stephen Montague]]. ''[[American Music (journal)|American Music]]'', Summer 1985. Via [[UbuWeb]]. Retrieved May 24, 2007.</ref>}}

Another series of works applied chance procedures to pre-existing music by other composers: ''Cheap Imitation'' (1969; based on Erik Satie), ''Some of "The Harmony of Maine"'' (1978; based on [[Supply Belcher|Belcher]]), and ''Hymns and Variations'' (1979). In these works, Cage would borrow the rhythmic structure of the originals and fill it with pitches determined through chance procedures, or just replace some of the originals' pitches.{{sfn|Pritchett|1993|loc=197}} Yet another series of works, the so-called ''Number Pieces'', all completed during the last five years of the composer's life, make use of ''time brackets'': the score consists of short fragments with indications of when to start and to end them (e.g. from anywhere between 1′15" and 1′45", and to anywhere from 2′00" to 2′30").{{sfn|Pritchett|1993|loc=200}}

Cage's method of using the ''I Ching'' was far from simple randomization. The procedures varied from composition to composition, and were usually complex. For example, in the case of ''Cheap Imitation'', the exact questions asked to the ''I Ching'' were these:
# Which of the seven modes, if we take as modes the seven [[scale (music)|scale]]s beginning on white notes and remaining on white notes, which of those am I using?
# Which of the twelve possible chromatic [[Transposition (music)|transposition]]s am I using?
# For this phrase for which this transposition of this mode will apply, which note am I using of the seven to imitate the note that Satie wrote?{{sfn|Kostelanetz|2003|loc=84}}
In another example of late music by Cage, ''Etudes Australes'', the compositional procedure involved placing a transparent strip on the star chart, identifying the pitches from the chart, transferring them to paper, then asking the ''I Ching'' which of these pitches were to remain single, and which should become parts of aggregates (chords), and the aggregates were selected from a table of some 550 possible aggregates, compiled beforehand.<ref name="Nicholls 2002, 139" />{{sfn|Kostelanetz|2003|loc=92}}

Finally, some of Cage's works, particularly those completed during the 1960s, feature instructions to the performer, rather than fully notated music. The score of ''Variations I'' (1958) presents the performer with six transparent squares, one with points of various sizes, five with five intersecting lines. The performer combines the squares and uses lines and points as a [[Cartesian coordinate system|coordinate system]], in which the lines are axes of various characteristics of the sounds, such as lowest frequency, simplest overtone structure, etc.{{sfn|Pritchett|1993|loc=136}} Some of Cage's graphic scores (e.g. ''Concert for Piano and Orchestra'', ''Fontana Mix'' (both 1958)) present the performer with similar difficulties. Still other works from the same period consist just of text instructions. The score of ''0′00″'' (1962; also known as ''4′33″ No. 2'') consists of a single sentence: "In a situation provided with maximum amplification, perform a disciplined action." The first performance had Cage write that sentence.{{sfn|Pritchett|1993|loc=144–146}}

''Musicircus'' (1967) simply invites the performers to assemble and play together. The first ''Musicircus'' featured multiple performers and groups in a large space who were all to commence and stop playing at two particular time periods, with instructions on when to play individually or in groups within these two periods. The result was a mass superimposition of many different musics on top of one another as determined by chance distribution, producing an event with a specifically theatric feel. Many Musicircuses have subsequently been held, and continue to occur even after Cage's death. The [[English National Opera]] (ENO) became the first opera company to hold a Cage Musicircus on March 3, 2012, at the [[London Coliseum]].<ref>{{cite web|first=Doundou|last= Tchil |url=http://classical-iconoclast.blogspot.com/2012/01/eno-presents-john-cage-musicircus.html |title= ENO presents John Cage Musicircus|website=Classical-iconoclast.blogspot.com |date=January 20, 2012 |access-date=December 5, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|first=John |last=Lewis |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/mar/04/john-cage-musicircus-review-eno |title= John Cage's Musicircus – review |newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|date= March 4, 2012|access-date=September 5, 2014}}</ref> The ENO's Musicircus featured artists including [[Led Zeppelin]] bassist [[John Paul Jones (musician)|John Paul Jones]] and composer [[Michael Finnissy]] alongside ENO music director [[Edward Gardner (conductor)|Edward Gardner]], the ENO Community Choir, ENO Opera Works singers, and a collective of professional and amateur talents performing in the bars and front of house at London's Coliseum Opera House.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.eno.org/see-whats-on/productions/production-page.php?&itemid=2007 |title=eno.org |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130510014145/http://www.eno.org/see-whats-on/productions/production-page.php?&itemid=2007 |archive-date=May 10, 2013 }}</ref>

This concept of circus was to remain important to Cage throughout his life and featured strongly in such pieces as ''[[Roaratorio|Roaratorio, an Irish circus on Finnegans Wake]]'' (1979), a many-tiered rendering in sound of both his text ''Writing for the Second Time Through Finnegans Wake'', and traditional musical and field recordings made around Ireland. The piece was based on James Joyce's famous novel, ''[[Finnegans Wake]]'', which was one of Cage's favorite books, and one from which he derived texts for several more of his works.

===Improvisation===
Since chance procedures were used by Cage to eliminate the composer's and the performer's likes and dislikes from music, Cage disliked the concept of improvisation, which is inevitably linked to the performer's preferences. In a number of works beginning in the 1970s, he found ways to incorporate improvisation. In ''Child of Tree'' (1975) and ''Branches'' (1976) the performers are asked to use certain species of plants as instruments, for example the [[amplified cactus|cactus]]. The structure of the pieces is determined through the chance of their choices, as is the musical output; the performers had no knowledge of the instruments. In ''Inlets'' (1977) the performers play large water-filled [[conch]] shells – by carefully tipping the shell several times, it is possible to achieve a bubble forming inside, which produced sound. Yet, as it is impossible to predict when this would happen, the performers had to continue tipping the shells – as a result the performance was dictated by pure chance.{{sfn|Kostelanetz|2003|loc=92–96}}