John Cage Video

Today, while browsing through some of the old documents at the Museum, I stumbled upon this video of John Cage featured on a TV game show in 1960 with host Garry Moore. Here, he is performing one of his avante garde musical pieces called "Water Walk," which involved a number of strange instruments like a bath tub, duck call, watering can and many more. During this time, Cage was teaching an experimental music class at New York City's New School. As you can see, this is a time when Cage's works were quite controversial. John Cage was one of the major creative voices in late 20th century art, both in his own work and his collaborations with Merce Cunningham and Robert Rauschenberg.

Three weeks ago, the Museum's Work of the Week featured a musical notation for one Cage's compositions. It's nice to put a face with the art. Enjoy this fun and interesting video! And then look back at his work in the Work of the Week and in our Permanent Collection online.