James Luckett, at Spitting Image, shares some thoughtful thoughts about John Cage, music, and art. Empty your head before entering.

Shrooms Part 4

While the Federal government was busy atomizing the future, avante-garde composer John Cage, who stripped down music composition to its essential element - the ordering of action in a defined period of time - and then rebuilt the profession with much inventiveness, wit and candor, spent his spare time hunting mushrooms.
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And, if you didn't notice the Cage link on 4'33", here it is again...

The Sounds of Silence
John Cage and 4'33"

The purpose of this essay is to examine the aesthetic behind Cage's "silent" composition, 4'33", to trace its history, and to show that it marked a significant change in John Cage's musical thought -- specifically how it forms a point-of-no-return from the conventional communicative, self-expressive and intentional purpose of music to a radical new aesthetic that informs the field of unintentional sound, interpenetration, chance, and indeterminacy. The compositional process is described, both the writing of 4'33" and its evolution from past thought. Implications for performance are examined, and recommendations are made.
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And go back to the end of James' piece, click on the mp3 link, and listen to the man himself.

I've started my music lessons. I'm getting close to mastering Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. The melody on the right hand is pretty together. The bass with the left hand is a little more difficult. My fingers are getting bruises from running into themselves. Fortunately I only have to use two fingers. The hard part is combining the bass line and the melody without falling down. It's getting there.