The Cambridge Companion to John Cage

“Giving up control so that sounds can be sounds”, as he put it, was Cage’s aim, and one that to a great extent he achieved, as this series of essays demonstrates. He questioned the very basics of Western music by adopting indeterminacy and chance and, among other richly diverse achievements, he developed the prepared piano, percussion instruments, electronic resources and graphic notation. He was a prolific composer, performer, writer of prose and poetry and visual artist: several of his drawings are reproduced here as well as copious musical examples. As usual with this series, there are extensive notes, bibliography and...