John Cage was an American music composer who influenced the 20th century with his experimental approaches and unique philosophies of music. He was primarily known for his use of musical indeterminacy as a means of composition. He incorporated random operations into his solo piano composition “Music of Changes,” where the coin toss decides the next musical phrase from a set of prepared musical choices. His revolutionary musical invention also includes his "prepared piano" compositions, in which performers place objects such as screws, thumbtacks, bamboo strips on or between the piano strings in an attempt to produce an altered timbre. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Silence did not exist in Cage's world. He believed “there is neither empty space nor empty time. There is always something to see, something to hear. In fact, even if we try to be silent, we cannot. » His composition, 4'33'', reflected the philosophy in three movements of silence of the moment. This remains his most controversial composition. In his early years, Cage took inspiration from different schools. He recognized Henry Cowell as "the open sesame for new music." » Cowell was a leading figure in aleatory music when he first introduced the concept of "string piano" –– the attempt to manipulate piano strings in any way possible. Cowell's open-mindedness to new music was a counter to Arnold Schoenberg's practice of twelve-tone harmony in post-classical compositions. This was the counterforce Cage expected. In the 1950s, Cage explored the literature of Zen Buddhism. At the same time, DT Suzuki, a famous Japanese practitioner of Zen Buddhism, was coming to the United States to give a lecture on "egolessness" and "freedom." » At the heart of Suzuki's teaching was the Zen doctrine of "non-mind." » He believed that true creativity came from true solitude, and that true solitude meant experiencing “satori” in an artist's life –– becoming aware of the unconscious. It was also during one of the lectures that Suzuki personally encouraged Cage to "let the sounds be themselves" and create music that expanded his audience's worldview. Suzuki's encouragement resonated with Cage's deep love of noise. When interviewing Cage in his later years, he said: "I like the sounds the way they are. I don't need them to be anything other than what they are. . . I just want it to be a sound. » The ongoing conversations between Cage and Suzuki inspired Cage's preference for random operations rather than the elements of melodies, harmonies and textures in music since Cage perceived these elements as the work of his ego. Therefore, the use of radios in Cage's music reflected his liberation from thoughts, ego and will, and was also an integral part of a new musical experience desired by Cage. Looking through Cage's complete works, there are four times in total that Cage has included. the use of radios. These are Credo in Us (1942), Imaginary Landscape No. 4 (1951), Speech 1955 (1955) and the subject of this essay, Radio Music (1956). It should be noted that only one radio is used in Credo in Us as an accompanying instrument, but the radios are the main instruments among the compositions. Imaginary Landscape No. 5 is a piece written for twelve radio stations; Speech 1955 is a play written forfive radios and a news player; Radio Music is a piece written for eight radio stations. Cage's increasing use of radios in music and his selfless approach to music had become rather evident by the 1950s. Radio Music (1956) is a revolutionary composition by Cage. It must be performed solo or in an ensemble of two to eight artists each on the same radio station. According to the John Cage Works Database, the composer indicated that the work includes four sections to be programmed by the player(s), with or without intervention.silences. Eight musicians are needed to archive the most complex soundscape, each immediately manipulating the radio during the performance. To show how Cage's Radio Music is different from random music repertoires, I will compare Radio Music and three other random music repertoires respectively in the aspects of notation, musical construction and playability. The three aleatory musical repertoires are Erratum Musical (1913) by Marchel Duchamp, Dynamic Motion (1916) by Henry Cowell and In C (1964) by Terry Riley. Regarding notation, Marchel Duchamp wrote Erratum Musical on staff papers. However, note values ​​and bar lines are absent, clefs and accidentals are present. Therefore, the score includes noteheads in black with one syllable on each notehead. Duchamp noted cross dividers to establish a clear distinction between the three sections. In contrast, all elements of traditional musical notation are absent in Cage's Radio Music. Above each score there is an explicit instruction on how players should manipulate the radio, and then there is a set of amplitudes expressed in numbers. Here the amplitudes become noteheads and the player can decide the duration of each notehead. Cage suggested that radio frequencies could be a notation. So anything can be notation except noteheads. In short, the musical notation between the two pieces is visually different. In terms of musical construction, Henry Cowell's Dynamic Motion is full of massive sound clusters and dynamic changes, just as the title suggests. The original rhythmic pattern (movement) appears in measure 9 after a chordal introduction. The pattern then continues to repeat in massive tonal groups throughout the piece. There is a bright base and climax design with a recognizable pattern. Radio music, on the other hand, does not have a specific theme, melody, rhythm or harmony that one can study. Cage wanted the piece to be a musical soundscape rather than a musical composition. It conveyed the message of the music itself, whatever is happening right now, that's why the piece stands out among all the random music. He used the extreme unpredictability of sounds emitted simultaneously by eight radios. Even the artists couldn't predict the randomness and noises. Without a doubt, the musical construction between the two pieces is conceptually different. In terms of playability, In C by Terry Riley consists of 53 short and medium musical phrases. Preferably, it is performed by 35 musicians according to Riley. With the goal of creating a polyrhythmic performance on-site, each musician is given autonomy to determine the entry time, dynamics, and degree of repetition of assigned musical phrases. This required a certain level of self-control and mastery on the part of each musician in pursuit of collective flow. On the other hand, anyone who knows how to control an FM/AM radio or a portable device connected to radio stations could potentially be the performers of Cage's Radio Music. Ideally it is performed by eight (1993).