the first page of SILENCE, lectures and writings by John Cage
THE FUTURE OF MUSIC: CREDO
I BELIEVE THAT THE USE OF NOISE
Wherever we are, what we hear is mostly
noise. When we ignore it, it disturbs us. When we listen to it, we find it fascinating. The sound of a truck at fifty miles per hour. Static between the stations. Rain. We want to capture and control these sounds, to use them not as sound effects but as musical instruments. Every film studio has a library of "sound effects" recorded on film. With a film phonograph it is now
possible to control the amplitude and frequency of any one of these sounds and to give to it rhythms within or beyond the reach of the imagination.
Given four film phonographs, we can compose and perform a quartet for explosive motor, wind, heartbeat, and landslide.
TO MAKE MUSIC
If this word "music" is
sacred and reserved for eighteenth- and nineteenth-century instruments, we can substitute a more meaningful term: organization of sound.
WILL CONTINUE AND INCREASE UNTIL WE REACH A MUSIC PRODUCED THROUGH THE AID OF ELECTRICAL INSTRUMENTS.
∙ 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 \||
about #electroacousticmusic composition and noise \||
• what is noise?
• is noise a chronological marker?
• does noise relate us to our sound identity as individuals and as a group?
• does noise partially define our relationship to silence?
• digital noise vs analogue noise