John Cage "Imaginary Landscape No. 1"

Reflections On Imaginary Landscapes No. 1

Constructed from rhythmic units of vibrations and frequencies, John Cage's "Imaginary Landscape No. 1" pierces into a visceral reality for mankind. The compilation, formed by muted pianos, cymbals, and two variable-speed phonographs with amplifiers, is the unification of these elements to expose an entirely honest, yet ambiguous sensation. The interplay of sounds builds tension in a method that parallels poems I have read by projectivists. They flow, yet are jagged, impressionistic, and build themselves from their acoustic form spawned from the composers’ intentions. The content, or purpose of the piece, is at the quantum level of the composition: continuously fleeting, existing in a wave of possibilities and impossible to bring into concreteness, other than when defined in a perspective. The abrupt change of frequencies from the phonographs also parallels the enjambment of Black Mountain poetry. The method eases into a progression that is deviant yet somehow euphonious.

In the same manner in which the projectivists ascend from their organic origins to script a composition that harmonizes with their breathing intentions, Cage here utilizes natural progression using electroacoustic music. He attempted to make a musical pieces "free from individual taste and memory" and from the conventions that hitherto were followed. "A mistake", Cage says, "is beside the point, for once anything happens, it authentically is." This mode of applying one's intuition parallels the Black Mountain Poets, as Cage had his own experience in Black Mountain College. In the poets attempt to delineate the authenticity of reality, they, in a sense, removed their subjectivity, or attempted, rather, to maintain, in their writing, an objective interpretation, one which is reborn upon every experience of reading it. Similarly, Imaginary Landscape No. 1 does not yield a definitive reaction or sensation, but rather exists to explore what exists.