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=__ John Cage __= = =

__ Early Life: __ Cage was born in downtown Los Angeles, USA on August 12, 1992. He became extremely familiarized with the piano music of the 19th century when he began taking his first piano lessons in the 4th grade. He briefly attended Pomona College and traveled across Europe during his adolescence. In Europe, he visited Majorca, where he began composing and heard the music of contemporary composers. In 1931, Cage returned to the US when he was 19 and decided to study music, after much debate on what he wanted to dedicate his life to.

__ Musical Life: __ Cage worked at the University of Chicago as a composer & accompanist, and from the publicity as a percussion composer he was able to compose a soundtrack of radio play by Kenneth Patchen. However; when Cage began to compose music intended for the choreography of Syvilla Fort, the hall where Fort’s dance was to be staged had no room for a percussion group, only a single piano. Consequently; Cage first prepared a piano when he was commissioned to write music for "Bacchanale", a dance by Syvilla Fort in 1938. In the Spring of 1942, he moved from Chicago to New York where he lived with his wife & Max Ernst, a German painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and poet. In the 1940's and 1950's Cage attended lectures of Zen Buddhism and read the works of Indian Philosophers, on which his music is said to be based. In the 1960's he began his life-long association with C.F Peters Cooperation. He continued to compose unique musical works, & change the way music was perceived by testing the limits and the liberations of music.

__ Types and Compositions: __ In his time, Cage produced mountains of musical works that include: Sonatas, Voice Compositions, Ballets, Operas, Percussion Quartets, Percussion Trios, and of course the musical "invention" of Prepared Piano, which is traced almost directly to Cage. Cage was not only interested in traditional music, and also had unique works that made some question if what they were listening to was even music. A few examples of these are: "Imaginary Landscape No. 4" (1951) which consists of 12 radios being played at once and depended entirely on the broadcasts at the time. "Water Music" (1952) where Cage used shells and water to represent the noises of the world we hear today. In his arguably most important & popular piece, 4'33", Cage was focused on "not making music, but listening" and consists of 4 minutes and 33 seconds of silence.