John Cage
American · 1912–1992
Composer and music theorist who redefined the boundaries of music through chance operations, prepared piano, and the embrace of silence. His work Silence and his piece 4'33" challenged every assumption about what music is and can be.
Wikipedia ↗“I have nothing to say and I am saying it and that is poetry as I need it.”
English
“There is no such thing as an empty space or an empty time. There is always something to see, something to hear. In fact, try as we may to make a silence, we cannot. Sounds occur whether intended or not; the ones not intended are called silence.”
English
“If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, then eight. Then sixteen. Then thirty-two. Eventually one discovers that it is not boring at all.”
English
“Which is more musical: a truck passing by a factory or a truck passing by a music school? Are the people inside the school musical and the ones outside unmusical? What if the ones inside can't hear very well — would that change your answer?”
English
“The first question I ask myself when something doesn't seem to be beautiful is why do I think it's not beautiful. And very shortly you discover that there is no reason.”
English
“I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones.”
English