September 5th is the birthday of the American composer John Cage. He would have been 99 this year. In 2012, to celebrate the centenary of Cage's birth, we here at  A Different Nature, elsewhere on KBOO, and in Portland's new music community, will be presenting Cage-related programming throughout the year.

Tonight's Cage birthday celebration brings you the audio track from the 1983 Peter Greenaway film, Four American Composers, Vol. 1: John Cage.  This documentary sheds light on Cage's musical philosophy. It was based on a series of performances of music by John Cage to celebrate his 70th birthday at St. James Church Islington, London. If you would like to view the film, someone has posted it on youtube. 

The second hour of the show will feature "Le Cage Concrète", a series of 52 miniatures constructed from fragments of performances of Cage's music, averaging 1 1/2 minutes each in duration. These 52 short pieces are intended to be played in random sequence.  The possible combinations are astronomical: approximately 80 to the 67th power (80 with 67 zeroes...)  "Le Cage Concrète" was constructed in 1998 by Andrew Hosch, currently a host of this program.