Oriental Influences on John Cage

John Cage's idea of composing chance music was not arbitrary. His motives were inspired by Eastern philosophy, especially Zen Buddhism. Its influence was so deep on Cage that some people argue he was more of a philosopher than a composer. Many different philosophical elements were combined to create unique processes and approaches, resulting in the development of chance music. Sound and nature, which were closely related to each other in Cage's context, fascinated him very …

…led him to produce Fontana Mix in 1958, his first taped work involving indeterminacy. The following quote best sums up Cage's outlook on art and the element of "chance": "The philosophy, religion, and art of the West assumed that humans, created in the image of God, were destined to rule over nature. From a non-Western perspective, however, human beings were simply one of many species of life, and nature itself tended more toward randomness than order."