Happy Birthday, John Cage

The page in Silence, by John Cage, which produced the title of my toy piano suite, Anything Therefore is a Delight. I was directed to this page and that particular line through a random number generator, and I could not have picked a better title

John Cage was born on this date 100 years ago.

The older I get, the more beauty and inspiration I find in Cage’s music. His compositions, writings, and thoughts have become essential parts of my life. I’ve written elsewhere on this site about how embracing chance procedures led me to a compositional breakthrough. The result, a toy piano suite, can be heard below.

A copy of the score, which is free to download, may be found here.

Go out and hear some of Cage’s music performed live this week. http://www.johncage.org, the official site of Cage’s estate, has an events list which you may find useful.

If no Cage works are being performed in your area, sit down somewhere–preferably a place on whose sounds you would never think to focus. Don’t talk. Don’t read. Don’t write. Just listen.