Review Detail

Beautiful Noise is a biography of John Cage and highlights his inventive style regarding music. My takeaway is that John Cage was a rare person who could hear music in mundane sounds. I am curious what some of the music must have sounded like with the unique things he did. It makes total sense that his father was an inventor because Cage took that spirit and open mind as he pursued all aspects of music. However, as someone who finds most sound just annoying noise, I think in real life I would have been utterly disgusted to pay for a concert just to have someone sit silently at a piano while we all enjoyed the mutterings of the confused and angry audience. That sounds a lot more interesting in a book than a lived experience. The illustrations do a nice job of capturing the frenetic energy that seemed to surround John Cage’s creative mind. Overall, the book does a nice job of highlighting John Cage's life and eccentric style of music.