Image Source: Nancy Wilson Ross
"In 1952, pianist David Tudor walked onstage, bowed, seated himself at the piano, and closed the lid. For the next four minutes and 33 seconds, Tudor did not play a single note. This was the premiere of John Cage's seminal silent work, 4'33" (Four minutes and 33 seconds), Cage's favorite but most disputed composition. A highly controversial composer to this day, Cage pushed music's limits, forcing people to reconsider its possibilities."(Estrin,2010)
What is music? Could music education be broader than our conceptions of tonality, chords and pitch, could deeper philosophical insights into what is considered music, who decides what music is and what possibilities for new music exist all be explored in primary education? As Cage suggested in 1952 with 4'33" the presence, or paradox, of inaudible sound in a room could be very useful musically. As with any new music the invariable reaction is "its just noise" - this was the case at the preview of the Rite of Spring, when hiphop first appeared blasting out of boomboxes, or perhaps your reaction to the work of Christian Fennesz, a contemporary noise musician. However, these opinions have developed and changed through growing awareness and explore to the point where Cage is considered to be one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century.
Included below are a range of quotes that question some notions of what "music" is.
"I don't care much about music. What I like is sounds."
Dizzie Gillespie, Jazz Musician
The world is never quiet, even its silence eternally resounds with the same notes, in vibrations which escape our ears. As for those that we perceive, they carry sounds to us, occasionally a chord, never a melody"
Albert Camus, Writer and philosopher
"Which is more musical: a truck passing by a factory or a truck passing by a music school?"
John Cage, Composer
There's music in the sighing of a reed;
There's music in the gushing of a rill;
There's music in all things, if men had ears:
Their earth is but an echo of the spheres.
Lord Byron, Poet and writer
Music is the poetry of the air.
Jean Paul Richter, Writer
My idea is that there is music in the air, music all around us; the world is full of it, and you simply take as much as you require.
Edward Elgar, Composer
...........................................................................................................................................................................
N E X T S E C T I O N
