“William Mix” by John Cage

The majority of the piece maintains a consist crowd of noises that occur in loop of what sounds like a rewinding of a recording of my childhood of mentally absorbing the world around me. The sounds in the foreground happen in glimpses, coming in and out, demanding your sudden attention as they do. Sounds of things being turned, blown, driven and shot past you; along with sounds of things being played and stated happen in these glimpses. As I am writing about what I am hearing and self-editing, I can hear my edits in the glimpses of noise. These glimpses of sounds are accompanied with a background sound of a group of people conversing audible as a murmur which remains the same until I tune in to pay closer attention, which is when certain phrases jump out, and it is not until then that they do. Towards the end of the piece, when a loud applause take over accompanied with someone shouting over the applause, it sounds like a celebration of normalcy and self-acceptance. Who could have thought this piece, as a sonorous object would signify in the bits of sound information it begins with; the self-discoveries and self-doubt found in one’s youth and end with the accomplishment of self-acceptance signified with the applause?