The article "Searching for Silence" written by Alex Ross helped me to see and understand
more about John Cage and the infamous "4:33" musical piece. I'll be honest and say upfront that the article was also incredibly dry and I didn't even know most of the names or people that were mentioned. What I did get from it however, is the underlying goal or artistic expression from John Cage. Cage wanted to go against the grain and do the opposite of what was expected of him. For example, the article highlights "Schoenberg told Cage to immerse himself in harmony. Cage proceeded to ignore harmony...".
This same attitude bled into his works of art as well being that they just seemed to be random sounds. It occurs to me that that is exactly the point. To take a step back and still somehow appreciate something that is so wild and unexpected. To do something it seems most people don't do and just sit and enjoy the sounds of whatever comes to your ears.
I definitely have enjoyed a good meditation session where all I did was sit and enjoy the sounds of nature or the harshness of a concrete jungle. Cage highlights the beauty of this practice and brings it forth to an audience in a set stage. I especially liked when he was televised and performed "Water Walk" but the radios that were supposed to be on wouldn't work due to various issues and instead of giving up, Cage used the opportunity to improvise a new way to play the piece.
The article also asks the question "Did Cage love noise? Or did he simply make peace with it?" where the article then proceeded to explain how its seems he just made peace with it. I'd say, he made peace with sound because he loves sound, can't have one without the other.
"Cage held that an artist can work as freely with sound as with paint" and as a proper painter, Cage put sounds together in a song just like an abstract painter would paint on a canvas.
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