Calvin Tomkins' chapter on John Cage, in The Bride and the Bachelors, highlights the avant-garde American composer's principle, overarching theories regarding music composition, as well as a history of his major works and artistic affiliations and achievements. The overlying ideas of Cage's work revolved around his notion of art as "purposeless play", an idea that centers itself on the idea that the artists must attempt, not to portray his inner expression through an orderly creation, but, instead, through an attempt to "wake up to the very life we're living"(p.73). Cage suggests that because the modern world we live in is one of constant change, the music created should be encompassing of these ever-present new developments. Within this notion lies Cage's propositions. He "Proposes an art born of chance and indeterminacy, in which every effort is made to extinguish the artist's own personality"as well as "urges a perpetual process of artistic discovery in out daily life" (p.73). Here lies the strongest tie to the overarching class theme of "Art and Life". Rather than creating stagnant "masterpieces", that remain unchanged through eras, Cage seems to strive for a unending effort to capture the sounds and experiences one experiences (or will experience) in their increasingly progressive lives, smudging barriers between the process of composition and daily life. Cage's separation from his artistic and intellectual control over his pieces struck me as especially interesting, as well as acts as a target for his numerous critics.
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