In a Landscape

You’ve gotta love John Cage. The man foreshadowed too many things to mention, things we don’t yet know. Although he may have had Satie on the brain, pieces like In a Landscape, coming from Cage, seem like an indoctrinated prediction of not only minimalism, but the current re-embracing of tonality—irony anyone? After all, would it be possible to have a Christopher Theofanidis or a Jennifer Higdon without John Cage? Regardless, sometimes we tend to treat him like the Nostradamus of new music, forgetting that the true crux of John Cage is, in fact, just his music. Listening to these beautiful early pieces is a wonderful reminder.

—RN