John Cage's "Eight" as background music

When thinking about what a piece called "Eight" would sound like then one could think it has something to do with its title. Therefore, either eight different sound types could be included or the piece could be eight minutes long. This is what one could imagine. I also stepped into the listening situation with this expectation, yet after seeing the piece was over 40 minutes long I threw my expectations aside. This piece is one that I could play as a background music while doing other things simultaneously. Hence, while writing this post I am listening to that piece. 

My experience so far is that while it is not something I would listen to in my freetime, it is still rather calming. We have slow sounds approaching which are played for a while and then are replaced by a higher or lower pitched sound. What I find calming is that each sound is played resinantly and the sounds are not appearing and stopping abruptly. At the same time, some sounds are very high-pitched while others are rather low. I prefer the lower ones as they fit more into this "background"-type of music while the higher sounds stick out.The overall piece is slow and in between it creates an eerie feeling as if something is about to happen which comes from the use of overlapping lower sounds which are then overlapped by higher, nearly screeching-like sounds. 

While listening to the piece I try not to recreate the "instrument" it mimics but I take the sound for what it is: Just a sound. Retracing the instrument would mean that I try to reason the piece and its soudn and I think that this factor is something Avantgarde Music is trying to break. So by just emracing the music without a specific expectation and without judgment of its musicality I pay greater tribute to this piece. 

John Cage therefore created a piece that takes time to embrace but does not have to be embraced by only focusing on it.

Laura S. Wöllner