John Cage, guffawing in composer's heaven

Well, if there is a composer's heaven, John Cage is certainly here livening
things up.  He is probably having a good laugh right now at the reverential
treatment so many listers are giving him on the MCM List these days.  One
of John Cage's missions in life was to change our concept of what music
is and demystify "classical" music.  I don't think he would be in the least
offended if an "oaf" (in one lister's characterization) applauded at the
"wrong" time during the performance of one of Cage's pieces.  Had he been
present, I think Cage himself would have been delighted and would have
looked upon this applause (or any other inadvertent coughs, farts,
throat-clearings, or chatter) as an enhancement of his music, indeed an
essential part of it.  I once had the great pleasure of hearing him speak
at the Univ.  of Virginia in the early seventies, and he said something
that has always stuck with me.  It went something like this: "Music is
everywhere.  Musicians, composers, and audiences limit it to the concert
hall settings, but if you really want to hear some music, try this.  The
next time you are in line at the supermarket, just listen.  The voices you
hear, the cash register ringing, the clatter of the shopping baskets: this
is music."

The important role of silence in John Cage's music underlines this idea.
We can't really hear music unless we listen carefully, and sometimes
only the rests (i.e., silence) give us the kind of perspective we need to
listen to what follows.  I think we need to remind ourselves that Cage was
practicing Zen long before it became fashionable and drew people like Jerry
Brown on excursions to Kamakura to "learn" it.  Cage did not exclude the
world from his music.  Rather, he tried to make us aware of life by setting
it in the context of sound (and nonsound).

My two cents.

Bill Boletta