Class Reflection – 2/27/2012

To date, today’s class intrigued me the most.  The moment John Cages’ 4″33″ was brought up, my attention snapped too.  Seeing that many people have not heard of the piece did not shock me.  What shocked me, was their reaction.  I first heard about John Cage when I was a junior in high school.  After reading about the piece, I immediatly researched it, watched the YouTube video.  I fell in love.  I don’t want to toot my own horn (I really hate that expression) but I understood it immediatly.

In my opinion, the whole point of music is to focus on the emotion, and the sounds that are being introduced to you.  But in that time, we lose track of the outside world, and the outside sounds that we often forget about.  John Cage composed 4″33″ to take the focus away from the music, and and put the focus of the listeners into the moment that they are there, listening to what they aren’t hearing.

Sadly, I was disappointed to see the reaction of the students.  Being in the class, I figured that their reactions would be that of understand.  Instead of being pissed, disappointed, feeling like it was a waste of time.  The point is to listen to something other than the music.  Listen to your heartbeat.  The breathing of others.  Think about what it goes in to make those sounds, or feelings.