1.) John Cage described his music as "purposeless play", but "this play is an affirmation of life—not an attempt to bring order out of chaos, nor to suggest improvements in creation, but simply to wake up to the very life we are living, which is so excellent once one gets one’s mind and desires out the way and lets it act of its own accord."

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cage#Asian_influences

Another piece Cage wrote consisted of lines, running horizontally and some vertically across the page of all different length. The performer must determine the speed, pitch, clef, and length of each note based on what he perceived the line to instruct.

...Cage’s radical demands resulted in markedly hostile performer reactions.

Most performers often felt that Cage's 'chance' music was so detailed that there was nothing left to chance (or improvise). The performers felt more like slaves of the music rather than interpreters. Cage later went on to say "In my opinion it is the composer's privilege to determine his works, down to the minutest detail".

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cage#Chance

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2.) This could be scary (I think Mark Rothko would have found it scary) but I think it's amusing and interesting.

"I have spent many pleasant hours in the woods conducting performances of my silent piece... for an audience of myself, since they were much longer than the popular length which I have published. At one performance... the second movement was extremely dramatic, beginning with the sounds of a buck and a doe leaping up to within ten feet of my rocky podium."

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cage#Black_Mountain.2C_4.E2.80.9933.E2.80.99.E2.80.99

(see November 8 #6 below)

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