In the Beginning, there was Cage:

"The opposite and necessary coexistent of sound is silence. Therefore structure based on durations (rhythmic: phrase, time lengths) is correct (corresponds to the nature of the material) whereas harmonic structure is incorrect (derived from pitch, which has no being in silence)."(3)

Suddenly serialist music aesthetics were out of style. In a move reminiscent of Descartes, we note the desire to "demolish everything completely and start again right from the foundations"--a desire to scrutinize the essential 'nature' of musical habits and beliefs, and a desire to understand their construction, given the relationary qualities at hand. For Cage, the only necessary elements in sound composition are articulated between the variables of time, sound and silence.

However, just as 'harmonic music' is a construction, so too is 'silence,' for an absence of the auditory is not possible with the noise of the circulatory system, or the hiss of the speakers informing our conception of absence. Nevertheless his desire to overcome the domination of serialist modes of composition, notation, theory and performance was duly effective in forming a rupture, and allowing alternate modes to flourish.

While there were many other actors and conditions contributing to the growing experimentation with the medium of music and sound, we give Cage a centrality to theoretical descriptions without feeling as though we are reducing too greatly. Quite simply his influence helped change the academic climate, and therefore the approach many had to musical study. Unlike Descartes, Cage did not seek a foundation on which to build, but instead a platform from which to begin listening--many took this cue to being reworking their conceptual understandings and methods. Some, mainly Cornelius Cardew, understood this as a call to question power structures and begin utilizing the revolutionary potential of the art's practice. Generally most turned their attention to the processes involved, allowing the 'form' of music to be involved in the expression.

My analysis will fixate on these performative elements, differentiating the 'experimental' works by their emphasis on process and questioning of product. Guiding the structure here will be the following quote from Cage:

"Composing's one thing, performing's another, listening a third. What can they have to do with one another?"