Listening: Cage, Sonatas and Interludes, Sonata II.

In choosing a traditional term like “sonata” as the title for this piece, John Cage placed his work in some relation to centuries of history. By the 1940s, when Cage composed his work, there was broad audience familiarity with a whole canon of sonatas for piano by such famous composers as Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Liszt, and others. What relationship do you think Cage’s Sonatas have with this canonic tradition? Do you find anything in Cage’s Sonata II that would connect it to earlier piano sonatas, like those of Beethoven? If so, what? Be specific. If not, why do you suppose Cage would call his piece “sonata”?

*Essays must be typed, double-spaced, with one-inch margins and 12-point font. Aim to keep each essay between 250 and 400 words long.