John Cade was always a radical figure in his life and continues to be one as we learn about him now. From pieces of music that needed to be performed on a purposely broken grand piano,
To 4 minutes and 33 seconds of silence which is filled by the room itself with the sound of the audience's mumbles and the rain falling outside.
He believed that anything was and could be music even if the intention to make music was not there. I think a quote from this article that sums up how I feel about John Cage really well is "The easiest way to pay tribute to Cage is to imagine how much duller the world would have been without him." -Alex Ross
Initially I wanted to say that this article had a few parts that were focused on strange details of John's life such as his fascination with mushrooms that had nothing to do with his art, but as I thought more about it that's kinda his whole point is that there are so many little things going on at any given point that all go in to create a cohesive image.
I feel that there is something to be said about how optimistic Cage was. No matter how his work was received, no matter where he lived, no matter what people said about him, he was still happy to live life and live within his means. “I couldn’t be happier than I am in this apartment, with the sounds from Sixth Avenue constantly surprising me, never once repeating themselves,” -Cage
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