Reading Blog #2

The article, “Searching for Silence”, explores the work of John Cage, a musician who many claim revolutionized the world of music. Cage believed that silence was not only the absence of sound, but instead silence itself was music too. In fact, his most famous work, 4’33”, is just him silently sitting at a piano for four minutes and thirty-three seconds. This showed that even what we consider “silence”, there are still other sounds for us to hear. Allowing the audience to listen more attentively to the world around them, like people clearing their throats and birds chirping, which lets them hear the world around them, rather than focusing on music. Even though the musician was silent Furthermore, Cage used a multitude of unconventional instruments to expand the boundaries of music. By incorporating items such as radios, household objects, or even just plain silence, he challenged the modern structure of music and paved a whole new path for the creative process. Cage’s approach teaches us not only to embrace experimentation, but to also embrace the unexpected. His philosophy encourages us to find beauty in the mundane and to challenge the boundaries between art and real life. In a world filled with noise, Cage’s work reminds us to pause and listen to the world around us from time to time. He also teaches us that it is okay to experiment with untraditional things, and that you can branch off onto your own ideas and still make something beautiful and impactful. You don’t always have to follow the rules.