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John Cage

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Arguably the most influential of all modern sound artists; Cage has revolutionized the concepts of musicality and sound (and for this, many have come to the conclusion that cage was not a composer but more of theoretician). No one has broken so many musical taboos (and did it so early on) as him: one could easily speak of music and composition before and after Cage as so many new possibilities were introduced with his own work. One of his biggest contributions to music is his work with chance composition where notes played would be the result of a pre-determined system (no two performances would be alike). He is also renowned for using instruments in unorthodox ways (his works for prepared piano are particularly famous - where he would use bolts, pins and tools on the strings to create a percussive sound). Silence has also played a huge role in his work. His most famous piece is 4'33" which instructs the musician to not play his instruments for four minutes and thirty-three seconds!

I remember being curious about his work early on after discovering Philip Glass and hearing his name cited as an influence. I wound up buying his collaboration with Takehisa Kosugi which was way too experimental for me to appreciate at the time. It took a few years for me to readily notice just how profound and vast his influence on modern music is and decided to investigate his work. I managed to download a few albums on mp3 from emusic (before they limited their downloading quantities) and fell in love with the Empty Words recording where the audience reactions are as important as the composition itself. I started buying his music once again after finding a few of his work used.

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Album Cover Empty Words (Parte III)
Label: Ampersand
Release: 1979
Format: 2CD
Cat. no: AMPERE6

Song list:

CD 1:
  1. 1st Part (1:14:41)
CD 2:
  1. 2nd Part (1:14:16)


Album Cover Sonatas And Interludes (Markus Hinterhäuser)
Label: Col Legno
Release: 1996
Format: CD
Cat. no: WWE 1CD 20001

Song list:

  1. Sonata 1 (3:21)
  2. Sonata 2 (2:07)
  3. Sonata 3 (3:31)
  4. Sonata 4 (4:14)
  5. Interlude 1 (3:16)
  6. Sonata 5 (1:21)
  7. Sonata 6 (2:35)
  8. Sonata 7 (2:22)
  9. Sonata 8 (3:16)
  10. Interlude 2 (4:13)
  11. Interlude 3 (3:01)
  12. Sonata 9 (4:25)
  13. Sonata 10 (3:20)
  14. Sonata 11 (3:21)
  15. Sonata 12 (2:58)
  16. Interlude 4 (3:18)
  17. Sonata 13 (5:05)
  18. Sonata 14 & 15 "Gemini" (5:55)
  19. Sonata 16 (6:20)


Album Cover Works For Prepared Piano (Markus Hinterhäuser)
Label: Col Legno
Release: 1998
Format: 2CD
Cat. no: WWE 2CD 20027

Song list:

CD 1:
  1. Mysterious Adventure (7:10)
  2. A Room (2:00)
  3. Tossed As It Is Untroubled (3:08)
  4. Primitive (3:48)
  5. Music For Marcel Duchamp (5:50)
  6. Totem Ancestor (2:12)
  7. A Valentine Out Of Season 1 (2:05)
  8. A Valentine Out Of Season 2 (0:57)
  9. A Valentine Out Of Season 3 (1:24)
  10. Spontaneous Earth (2:41)
  11. Root Of An Unfocus (4:55)
  12. The Perilous Night 1 (2:27)
  13. The Perilous Night 2 (0:50)
  14. The Perilous Night 3 (4:43)
  15. The Perilous Night 4 (1:21)
  16. The Perilous Night 5 (0:49)
  17. The Perilous Night 6 (3:29)
CD 2:
  1. Daughters Of The Lonesome isle (8:28)
  2. The Unavailable Memory Of (2:08)
  3. And The Earth Shall Bear Again (3:01)
  4. Triple Paced (2:12)
  5. Bacchanale (10:46)
  6. Prelude For Meditation (1:12)
  7. In The Name Of The Holocaust (6:09)
  8. Our Spring Will Come (4:23)
  9. Two Pastorales: I (6:26)
  10. Two Pastorales: II (7:12)