It’s ironic that a man named Cage would be all about freedom.

A pioneer of aleotory or chance-controlled music, electroacoustic music, nonstandard use of musical instruments (such as the prepared piano), making music with found objects, and finding the music in everyday sounds, John Cage was a giant of 20th century music.

It’s possible to not know a single work he ever “wrote,” or at any rate conceived, and still be exposed to his influence constantly. Cage taught us new ways to think about sound and the nature of music, literally opening up new worlds for exploration. His genius lay in recognizing what had always been invisible before our eyes and silent to our ears.

To honor him on his birthday, I might insert objects between the caps lock and shift key of my laptop, or roll dice to determine which letters or combinations of letters to hit, or allow my cat to walk across the keyboard or spill a cup of coffee across the keys.

Or I could write nothing at all and allow the peripheral impressions you receive from your own environment determine how you experience my blank post.

Happy birthday, John Cage (1912-1992). There are plenty who would scoff at the Emperor’s New Clothes, but you were one hell of a tailor.

“I can’t understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I’m frightened of the old ones.” – John Cage

“Discovery consists of seeing what everybody else has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.” – Albert Szent-Györgyi

Cage performs “Water Walk” on national television:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yybn6iKmYdQ

Cage for people who don’t like Cage:

PHOTO: What’s a birthday without balloons?