American John Cage is one of the best-known and most significant Avant-garde composers of the twentieth century. Along with several artists and poets, and composers like Morton Feldman, Christian Wolff and Earle Brown, he was part of the so-called New York School in the 1950s. He was also strongly influenced by Eastern philosophy.

John Cage had enormous significance to Avant-garde art, primarily in the 1940s, 50s and 60s, and he is still a source of inspiration for many composers and artists. His graceful piece In a Landscape was inspired by Erik Satie and composed for dancer and choreographer Louise Lippold.

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This excerpt of music is from episode 1 of the series Mankind and Music. The five episodes are available to watch here on Konserthuset Play. Why does music exist? What happens to us when we make or listen to music? In this series, we explore answers to these questions together with musicians, listeners and researchers.