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Book review: 'Begin Again: A Biography of John Cage' by Kenneth Silverman
The biography of the avant-garde composer fails to do justice to his complexities.
Alfred A. Knopf: 496 pp., $40Type the name "John Cage" into YouTube, and you'll find several fascinating clips. First is a 1991 interview with the experimental composer, in which, above the squawks of a Manhattan street, he discusses silence and his appreciation of noise. "When I hear what we call music, it seems to me that someone is talking," Cage tells the camera, "… but when I hear traffic, the sound of traffic … I don't have the feeling that anyone is talking. I have the feeling that sound is acting, and I love the activity of sound." To catch a glimpse of this idea in action, look next at a January 1960 clip from the game show "I've Got a Secret," during which Cage performs "Water Walk," an oddly beautiful sound collage played on, among other objects, a water pitcher, an iron pipe, a sprinkling can, a bathtub and five radio.
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