Allegory Of The Cave

What is the Allegory of the Cave and how does it relate to Aleatoric Music? To begin with, The philosopher Plato once wrote about the philosophy of dualism. In the Book VII of Plato’s Republic, Plato wrote an allegory of three prisoners are chained up in a cave their entire life unaware of reality. They’re backs are to the entrance of the cave and they can only see the shadows against the cave’s interior created by a fire. They can occasionally see the people and other things pass by and cast shadows on the wall. The prisoners name and classify these illusions and believe that they are perceiving actually entities. One prisoner is then freed and goes outside the cave and is told that the objects around them are real and their shadows are
Everywhere a person travels they hear music whether if it’s in a mall, grocery store or even an elevator. In the past when people thought of music they usually believed music has to have a rhythm or sound. Even the renoud dictionary Merriam Webster definition states that music is the “science or art of ordering tones or sounds in succession, in combination, and in temporal relationships to produce a composition having unity and continuity.” Music has always been thought of as a sound that unites to create a composition of melody. According to Plato, this is just one form of music and not the perfect idea of music. John Cage came up with another form of music through the teachings of Zen Buddhism and the Chinese classical oracle book, the I
It was called 4’33”. The pieces duration was entirely made up of silence where the performers wouldn’t play there instruments. This piece challenges the very dynamic of music that people have known. During the performance of the piece, the composer goes on stage and does nothing at all . The audience witnesses the act and is still quiet the whole time. This sort of piece is difficult for most audiences since sitting quietly for any length of time is not something people are accustomed to. Presented to silence the outcome is unknown. Anything could happen during the performance of the piece. People could desire to hear more interesting sounds or feel insulted,baffled or bored. Furthermore, Cage’s piece through silence and aleatoric music was able to produce endless content full of both expected and common sounds. John Cage through Zen and his understanding of silence, he was able to create a new form of his