I listened the following three pieces by John Cage.

John Cage – In a Landscape

I found this piece quite beautiful. The sound of the composition is soft and meditative. This piece is similar to Cage`s Dream, but the fixed gamut of tones is more extensive. Resonances are sustained throughout the composition by using both pedals.

John Cage – First Construction

I did not particularly like this piece. I hear it more as a rhythm than a melody. It also entirely random with loose timing. There are brief moments between 6-8 minutes where there seemed to be a looped pattern of playing.

John Cage – Five, for any 5 voices or instruments

There are many versions of Five. I enjoyed listening this piece. It was one of Cage`s early pieces and he specified both pitches and dynamics (but not the instrumentation). This give some musical sound to the piece and made it less random. It also has a calming effect and it is similar to chanting. The long-sustained notes connect to me on a deeply instinctual level.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary’s definition of music is “Vocal or instrumental sounds (or both) combined in such a way as to produce beauty of form, harmony and expression of emotion”.

My own definition of music (Project One, Part One What music means?) is: “music is a unique language and it connects people all around the world. It can be written without any limitation, so it is a perfect tool to express emotion, creativity or using it for healing”. : (McCaul, 2019)

Cage approach to music by incorporating unconventional instrumentation affect the sound is produced and his formal structure is in terms of units of time rather than pitch and rhythmic relationships. He uses various objects (pennies, bolts, rubber etc) and random volumes, durations and speed.

Beauty is a subjective term and open to interpretation, but taken in its widest definition, some people will find these works beautiful. All three pieces had form, harmonic content and expressed emotion. So given this definition, I believe these works may be considered to be music.

Post war musicians often demanded more attentive listening from their audiences. The same attention required from composers in classical music by evoking of impressions, thoughts and feelings. In chance music, some elements are left unspecified, use more improvisation, experiencing each sound as it comes along. It does not convey any emotion or other intention. Although all the elements of music are there, I think it is also an artwork. It deliberately created to have aesthetic value. The composer may perceive his work as an art, but other people may have different view about the composition and it not necessarily fulfilling the definition of art.

Based on the chance and serial music that I have listened to, there seems to be a greater focus on rhythm in chance music, with melody virtually absent at times. Chance music has no defined musical structure whereas serialism is based on some traditional musical elements.

At this stage of this course, I would simply be listening to music without considering its composition system used. I think it is not essential for understanding the work at an emotional level but such an understanding my increase the intellectual appreciation from the listener.

It is possible to gain emotional impact from music without understanding the underlying compositional process used. On the other hand, understanding the music on the intellectual level creates a deeper emotional impact.

A good example is the film music., where music contributes to the overall emotional impact of the story, at times without even being consciously noticed by the viewer. Another example is the church music. On the Mass the music contributes to the emotional climax of the service. Not too many people of the congregation would have understood the compositional process.

Emotion is created in music through the manipulation of musical elements such as rhythm, tempo, harmony, melody, dynamics and timbre. Associations between musical features and emotions differ among individuals. Some of the effects are the creation and release of tension through the manipulation of dissonance and consonance, the sadness which created by minor chords, the ethereal emotions which created by augmented chords, and the speed and loudness to create the sense of urgency and importance. I think chance music also create emotional impact. It would be also interesting to see if the music would bring out the same emotional responses from people whose cultures unexposed to western music.

Both chance and serial music created new rules that avoided the tonal structure. Serialism has an identified music structure compared to chance music. Chance music uses unconventional instrumental and it is different each time of performance. The fact that the performance is left in the hands of the performer and random selection of rhythm and pitches applied is distracting the music.

References

Your Bibliography: McCaul, A. (2019). WordPress.com. [online] WordPress.com. Available at: https://wordpress.com/view/anamea.music.blog [Accessed 14 Aug. 2019].

Your Bibliography: Spotify. (2019). Spotify – Web Player: Music for everyone. [online] Available at: https://open.spotify.com/search/results/In%20a%20Landscape [Accessed 14 Aug. 2019].

Your Bibliography: YouTube. (2011). John Cage: First Construction (1939). [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGMEPgXUoLw [Accessed 15 Aug. 2019].

Your Bibliography: YouTube. (2012). John Cage – Five. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W57Eaq4e7g [Accessed 14 Aug. 2019].