Music and Time Annotation << Back Peter Timmerman Uncaged: Buddhism, John Cage and the Freeing of the World A.N. Lipov John Cage is generally considered the most infl uential avant-garde musician of the second half of the twentieth century. His music and its interpretation form one of the most important examples of Buddhist teaching in the West in the last 50 years. Of particular interest is his ongoing exploration of the meaning of music, noise, sound, silence, and the role of the musician/artist as a medium for expressing their own 'Buddha nature'. This is compared and contrasted with the work of Soetsu Yanagi, the originator of the theory of mingei (folk craft) in Japan, whose definition of the roles of the traditional artisan and the modern individual artist from a Pure Land Buddhist perspective sheds light on questions of 'self' and 'other power' in creativity. Much of the composer's work, including his best-known piece '4'33' - 4 minutes and 33 seconds of silence - is not exactly misunderstood, but its implications have not been fully considered; although Cage himself has increasingly explored them over the years in interviews and presentations scattered here and there. The translation of the scientific article presents the case for the composer's music and its interpretation as one of the most important examples of Buddhist teaching in the West in the last 50 years. Keywords: philosophy of music, American musical experimentalism, Buddhism, the work of composer Cage, the play "4'33". DOI: 10.25791/music.4.2025.1352 Pp. 15-23.