John Cage

Cage died yesterday at the age of 79. The New York Times wrote that Cage "started a revolution by proposing that composers could jettison the musical language that had evolved over the last seven centuries, and in doing so he opened the door to Minimalism, performance art and virtually every other branch of the musical avant-garde." His compositions include spoken texts, radios, toys and the sounds of vegetables being chopped. In honor of his passing, we present highlights of his 1982 interview with Terry Gross.

John Cage is an avant-garde musician known for his "chance compositions," which use "found" sounds. His music mixes Eastern philosophy with Western high-technology and eschews principles of harmony and melody. Cage is still a radical at 73.

John Cage is an avant-garde musician known for his "chance compositions," which use "found" sounds. His music mixes Eastern philosophy with Western high-technology. Cage is also an expert on mushrooms. In celebration of his birthday, the Philadelphia Museum of Art is putting on an exhibition of his scores, "John Cage: Scores & Prints." Cage joins the show to discuss his art and philosophy.