Williams Mix by
John Cage
The sound at the beginning starts
with what appears to be a tuning radio. It flickers in and out for a while and
then presents blurbs of other things, the most apparent being frog croaks and
human voices. There is an inherent distortion over every noise, muddling the
ability to discern individual sounds or their sources. Now accompanying the
initial noises are other miscellaneous noises. There appears to be a
technological and organic theme. All noises are either produced by a living
thing or a piece of technology. Things are becoming quite cacophonous. Now
they’ve backed off and are coming in irregular intervals. The radio overtone is
still present and remains unfixed, always in flux. The voices of people
continue to blurt out at random, almost as if they are trying to have a
dysfunctional conversation with one another. Creaks, croaks, static and voices
now continue to permeate the radio. It’s clear that this is the comfortable
pattern that this composition aims to take. Now the sounds have ceased and have
been replaced with enthusiastic applause. Passionate “bravos” can be heard. The
applause appears to decompose into what is now an opposite reaction. Boos and
hollering have replaced the joyous applause of before, but the applause quickly
returns to create a confused and mixed reaction. I do wonder… how does Cage
feel about this composition of his? Does that chaotic combination of applause
and booing imply anything about how he feels regarding his work?
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