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File:John_Cage_(1988).jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

EntityQ180727· pop 75· linked from 1,818 articles

John Cage

Also known as John Milton Cage Jr., John Milton Cage, Jr., John Milton, Jr. Cage, J. C.

American avant-garde composer (1912-1992)

AI overview

John Cage was an American composer who pioneered experimental music in the 20th century, pushing beyond traditional musical boundaries through innovative techniques and unconventional instruments. His work fundamentally challenged how people think about sound, silence, and the nature of music itself, making him one of the most influential and controversial figures in modern classical music.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Born: 1912
Died: 1993
Works: 160

Top works

A year from Monday
Silence
Empty Words
X
John Cage

via Open Library + Wikidata

Film & TV

Acting · Los Angeles, California, USA

John Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer, music theorist, artist, and philosopher. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde.

Known for

Nova '78 — Self (archive footage)2025
Nam June Paik: Moon Is the Oldest TV — Self (archive footage)2023
Take the Cage Train – Boletus Edulis2023
Twinkle Dammit!2020
Symphony Of The Invisible — Self (voice)2020
Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound — Self (archive footage)2019
Everybody's Cage — John Cage2015
John Cage: Journeys in Sound — Himself2012
How to Get Out of the Cage (A year with John Cage) — himself2012
Cursive II2006

via TMDB

Music · MusicBrainz

Type: Person
Gender: Male
Origin: United States
Active from: 1912
Active to: 1992

americanavant-gardechanceclassicalcomposerexperimental

Discography

Official site Discogs Stream

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners: 322,830
Total plays: 3,492,270

Recent publications · Crossref

5 total works indexed

Generalized Gradient Approximation Made Simple
· 1996 · cited 200,687x
Highly accurate protein structure prediction with AlphaFold
· 2021 · cited 41,733x
Gene Ontology: tool for the unification of biology
· 2000 · cited 36,358x
Matplotlib: A 2D Graphics Environment
· 2007 · cited 34,340x
The MOS 36-ltem Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36)
· 1992 · cited 28,860x

via Crossref · CC0

Quotes

“I can't speak or write German, but I'am overjoyed because I have bought one of your pictures. Now it is in me. I write music. You are my teacher.”
“I believe that the use of noise to make music will continue and increase until we reach a music produced through the use of electrical instruments which will make available for musical purposes any and all sounds that can be heard. Photoelectric, film and mechanical mediums for the synthetic production of music will be explored.”
“...WHEREAS, IN THE PAST, THE POINT OF DISAGREEMENT HAS BEEN BETWEEN DISSONANCE AND CONSONANCE, IT WILL BE, IN THE IMMEDIATE FUTURE, BETWEEN NOISE AND SO-CALLED MUSICAL SOUNDS.”
“The composer (organizer of sound) will be faced not only with the entire field of sound but also with the entire field of time. The 'frame' or fraction of a second, following established film technique, will probably be the basic unit in the measurement of time. No rhythm will be beyond the composer's reach.”
“I have nothing to say/ and I am saying it/ and that is poetry/ as I need it.”
“We need not destroy the past. It is gone.”

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

Wikidata facts

Official website: johncage.org
Image: Opdracht GPD componist John Cage , kop, Bestanddeelnr 934-2728.jpg

Show 9 more facts

Commons category: John Cage
date of birth: 1912-10-05
date of death: 1992-08-02
name in native language: John Cage
start of work period: 1938-00-00
P8168: Gilette
end of work period: 1992-01-01
pseudonym: Cage, Jr., John Milton
P12674: Giungano

Sources (15)

via Wikidata · CC0

Works in European collections

18 objects attributed to John Cage, held across European museums, libraries & archives · via Europeana

El tramposo don Fausto [Manuscrito] :]comedia en dos actos y en verso. Emp.: Me opongo, como tutor (p. 5)... Fin.: que te pagará mi alma (p. 99)

¡Viva! ¡Viva! [Manuscript]:] comic toy in two acts. Emp.: Make the horses drink (h. 3)... End.: Long live! (h. 75v)

Grandes cuestiones que se han de ventilar con preferencia en las próximas Cortes

Nuevo catecismo político arreglado a la constitución de la monarquía española para ilustración del pueblo, instrucción de la juventud y uso de las escuelas de primeras letras

Kammerballett

Untitled

~40 min read

Article

John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer, artist, and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde. Critics have lauded him as one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. He was also instrumental in the development of modern dance, mostly through his association with choreographer Merce Cunningham, who was also Cage's romantic partner for most of their lives.

Cage's teachers included Henry Cowell (1933) and Arnold Schoenberg (1933–35), both known for their radical innovations in music, but Cage's major influences lay in various East and South Asian cultures. Through his studies of Indian philosophy and Zen Buddhism in the late 1940s, Cage came to the idea of aleatoric or chance-controlled music, which he started composing in 1951. The I Ching, an ancient Chinese classic text and decision-making tool, became Cage's standard composition tool for the rest of his life. In a 1957 lecture, "Experimental Music", he described music as "a purposeless play" which is "an affirmation of life – not an attempt to bring order out of chaos nor to suggest improvements in creation, but simply a way of waking up to the very life we're living".