# Strange music



## Levanda (Feb 3, 2014)

I was listened John Cage Music of Changes 1951. I did not gave my satisfaction, for my listening skills it was no melody and nothing intellectual and strange to my understandings. I thought I can do like that just press piano keys and something will come out. My excuses for to be so critical, I just wish to understand more about music. Would somebody open my mind. Many thanks.


----------



## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

I liked it, though it didn't need to be 44 minutes.

I relate to abstract (painting, music, dance, etc.) as something to temporarily take you away from the norm. Mind stretching via their unpredictability.
You're not being held hostage.:tiphat:


----------



## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Levanda said:


> I was listened John Cage Music of Changes 1951. I did not gave my satisfaction, for my listening skills it was no melody and nothing intellectual and strange to my understandings. I thought I can do like that just press piano keys and something will come out. My excuses for to be so critical, I just wish to understand more about music. Would somebody open my mind. Many thanks.





Vaneyes said:


> I liked it, though it didn't need to be 44 minutes.
> 
> I relate to abstract (painting, music, dance, etc.) as something to temporarily take you away from the norm. Mind stretching via their unpredictability.
> You're not being held hostage.:tiphat:


Vaneyes makes a good point about relating to abstract art. Cage is the musical equivalent of abstract painting. It isn't a picture of any sort of reality. Rather, it's a completely new "vision" from the mind of the artist.

Could you do something similar by clanking down piano keys at random for 40 some minutes? Sure. And you should probably give it a try. It may be the same sort of stress reliever that the Cage piece is ... or maybe it will provoke stress. Either way, if you get something out of the experience (whether it is from listening to the Cage piece or banging out your own "music") you will have done something worthwhile. Cage most probably would agree.

In fact, Cage would probably encourage you to bang out your own piece rather than listen to a recording of his. Cage was rather against recording for the reason that it tended to solidify something that should remain fluid and malleable, that is, capable of "change".

To hear the Cage _Music of Strangeness _... er _Changes_ ... I cracked into my 18 CD box set from MDG (613-1731-2) of the JOHN CAGE COMPLETE PIANO MUSIC performed by Steffen Schleiermacher. I found it on disc number 6. I'm listening to it as I type.

Generally I like to give total concentration to the music, but occasionally I make exceptions, and again I don't think Cage would mind allowing for some other activity to occupy one's concentration while the _Music of Changes _rumbled on in the background.

The nifty thing about this music is that it's a pretty good representation of contemporary/modern music piano plunking, and it may be the only modern piano music album the non-devotee needs. I hear a little bit of nearly everything in there: strings being stroked in an arpeggio manner, the shell of the piano being struck, 12-tone like phrasings, minimalist like phrasings, Messiaen like bird calls, Boulez like chord clusters .... If you like this piece, you'll like a lot of the abstract styled modern piano music. If you don't like this piece, you're probably better to stick with Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt and Rachmaninoff. After all, they have plenty of music to explore -- enough to exhaust a lifetime of study and listening.

But I like the Cage piece (which is why I invested in the 18 CD box set in the first place). I also regularly listen to piano music of the atonalists and to Boulez's three sonatas and the bird song piano music of Messiaen ... along with much else. Fascinating stuff. Not to everybody's tastes, I'm aware, but intriguing to me and many others. I'm glad we have this stuff available to hear.

But if we didn't, I'd probably go to the old piano and chunk some of it out for myself. After all, should I attempt to play a sonata by Mozart or Beethoven, it would tend to sound closer to Cage's _Music of Changes _than to what Mozart or Beethoven had expected to hear from their scores. Which is why _Music of Changes _is a good title for such sounds as Cage makes. For I make such sounds when I attempt Mozart or Beethoven.

Which makes me wonder what I might produce attempting to play the _Music of Changes _by Cage!










By the way ... here's a wonderful website devoted to a review and samples from that box set: http://www.allmusic.com/album/john-cage-complete-piano-music-vols-1-10-mw0001845330


----------



## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

John Cage is a native-born American, so he understands the oriental approach, and thus has no wish to assimilate to Western culture, but wishes to escape it.


----------



## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Levanda said:


> IMy excuses for to be so critical, I just wish to understand more about music. Would somebody open my mind.


I appreciate your openness. Many people would throw up their hands and walk away.

I remember the first time I heard Anton Webern's music, I actually got mad. It sounded so random, how could I tell if they were playing the right notes or just making it up? Some nice people helped me out, and now he's one of my favorite composers.

I hope a new world is about to open to you.


----------



## mtmailey (Oct 21, 2011)

There are plenty of strange music like hip-hop/rap heavy metal.That techno music sounds unnatural to me.


----------



## MoonlightSonata (Mar 29, 2014)

Levanda said:


> I was listened John Cage Music of Changes 1951. I did not gave my satisfaction, for my listening skills it was no melody and nothing intellectual and strange to my understandings. I thought I can do like that just press piano keys and something will come out. My excuses for to be so critical, I just wish to understand more about music. Would somebody open my mind. Many thanks.





Manxfeeder said:


> I appreciate your openness. Many people would throw up their hands and walk away.
> 
> I remember the first time I heard Anton Webern's music, I actually got mad. It sounded so random, how could I tell if they were playing the right notes or just making it up? Some nice people helped me out, and now he's one of my favorite composers.
> 
> I hope a new world is about to open to you.


Yes, I was like that with Stravinsky. It's wonderful when the music suddenly seems to make sense.


----------



## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

millionrainbows said:


> John Cage is a native-born American, so he understands the oriental approach, and thus has no wish to assimilate to Western culture, but wishes to escape it.


What do you mean by "native-born American"?


----------



## Levanda (Feb 3, 2014)

Many thanks for good explanation, I think I try to listening again some strange music in short time, just to try again but I do not wish to put myself pressure to like it and yes absolutely agree different music is better for all us.


----------



## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Anything can be interesting, in some way or other, if you want to take an interest. 

This should be an excellent test of that thesis.


----------



## Marschallin Blair (Jan 23, 2014)

Woodduck said:


> Anything can be interesting, in some way or other, if you want to take an interest.
> 
> This should be an excellent test of that thesis.


Duck, I didn't see you there. . . . . . . . We're you saying something?


----------



## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Bulldog said:


> What do you mean by "native-born American"?


Not to claim to speak for hisself, but lets just assume, kinda safely, that:
the dude means, like, "not Schoenberg, not European."

... and having not come from this culture, either.
American Indian ~ Douglas Spotted Eagle and tribe members, "Arrival."


----------



## kirsten (Oct 16, 2014)

MoonlightSonata said:


> Yes, I was like that with Stravinsky. It's wonderful when the music suddenly seems to make sense.


Exactly the same with me. When I first listened to the Rite of Spring I hated it. But as I listened to it more it grew on me and I was able to appreciate how the music conveyed so much emotion. Now it is one of my favorite pieces of music. Just keep an open mind and try new things. Who knows, you just might discover some great music.


----------



## MoonlightSonata (Mar 29, 2014)

kirsten said:


> Exactly the same with me. When I first listened to the Rite of Spring I hated it. But as I listened to it more it grew on me and I was able to appreciate how the music conveyed so much emotion. Now it is one of my favorite pieces of music. Just keep an open mind and try new things. Who knows, you just might discover some great music.


What a perfect description!


----------



## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

Levanda said:


> I was listened John Cage Music of Changes 1951.


You was? I was, too.



Levanda said:


> I did not gave my satisfaction...


Why did you not gave? I gave satisfaction, and the person next to me thanked me for it.



Levanda said:


> ...for my listening skills it was no melody...


That observation presupposes that music should be melodic. You should be listening for isolated "events" in this music.



Levanda said:


> ...and nothing intellectual......and strange to my understandings.


I think what you mean is that the music doesn't seem to posture intellectually. It simply "is." You are on the right track here.



Levanda said:


> ...I thought _I can do like that just press piano keys and something will come out._


Oh, that's a variant on "My four-year-old kid could do that!" or "That sounds like a cat walking on the piano!" Apparently, this critical syndrome is not confined to the continent U.S., but is, indeed_ worldwide._



Levanda said:


> My excuses for to be so critical, I just wish to understand more about music. Would somebody open my mind. Many thanks.


Is that a question, or a complaint? :lol:


----------

