"Sound does not mean anything" - John Cage

In view of a comment posted by my senior on my previous post on the "Symphony of Singapore Sounds" reminds me of a philosophy which John Cage mentioned in an interview that I think it would be nice to share this philosophy in this post.

John Cage mentioned that sound is a sound, it does not need to mean anything. In the convention, people always have the thinking that, a sound is not plainly a sound, it has inner meanings to it, thus is linked to certain contexts. Therefore, when people listen to music, they will think deep (Inner Listening) into the music in order to get what the music mean. Paradoxically, in John Cage's point of view, he is looking at pure listening to the sound (Outer Listening) on the surface and need not think what the sound mean and how it fits into a context.

So you see, listening to sound need not be as complicating as when we listen to Beethoven and Mozart which definately mean something. At the end of the interview, John Cage brought up a quote by German Philosopher Immanuel Kant, that, there are two things in the world which doesn't need to mean anything, one is Music and other one is Laughter. This philosophy is also mentioned in his journal in Musical Quarterly Titled "East and West, New and Old".

Some Quote from the Interview:

"Those people who finally managed to understand that sound is just sound, they replied "You mean a sound is just sound !?"" - John Cage

"People think that sounds are useless, whereas I love sounds, just as they are, I have no need for them to be anything more. I don't want sounds to be psychological, sounds to pretend that they are something else or the sound is in love with other sound" - John Cage

Here are some sound music which I would like to recommend:-

Marcel Duchamp - Sculpture Musicale (can be downloaded @ http://beemp3.com/download.php?file=489129&song=4.+Sculpture+Musicale )

John Cage - Sculpture Musicale (Mesostic by John Cage) ( can be downloaded @ http://beemp3.com/download.php?file=489130&song=2.+Sculpture+Musicale+%28Mesostic+by+John+Cage%29 )

Gyorgy Ligeti - Poem Symphonique for 100 Metronomes ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8v-uDhcDyg )

Happy Listening !!!