George W. Bush Biography

George W. Bush Biography George W Bush Addison Davis On July 6, 1946, in New Haven, Connecticut one of our future presidents would be born his name is George W. Bush. Growing up, he was the oldest of six children from his mother and father, Barbara Pierce Bush and George Herbert Walker Bush. The Bush family has always been with politics, even in the 50’s. Bush’s grandfather, Prescott Bush, was a progressive Republican senator from Connecticut and a banker on Wall Street His father was also involved with politics, he was a businessman, diplomat, a vice president and president of the United States. At just two years old, George H.W. Bush decided to move the whole family to Midland, Texas where he would make it big in the oil business. Boy George mostly grew up in Midland and went to school there up until seventh grade when they moved to Houston, Texas. At that point George W. Bush was sent to Massachusetts to go to school at Phillips Academy. At Phillips Academy he was a Star Athlete playing baseball, basketball and footbal l. He was an alright student and occasionally got into trouble, but nevertheless, he was accepted into Yale with the help of family connections. At Yale, he put his social life in front of studies, but this being said he was still invited into the invitation only Skull and Bones society. Just before his graduation George enlisted in the Texas Air National Guard. He was again accepted with some help of a family friend. In 1970 George received his fighter pilot certificate, but on November 21, 1974 he was honorably discharged from the Air Force. After that, he decided to go back to school so, he went to Harvard Business School to get his Masters of Business Administration degree. After that he went back to his hometown to enter the oil business working with a friend. Later on, after he had had some experience with the business he started his own oil and gas firm. In 1977, he would meet his future wife Laura Welch, who was a school teacher and a librarian at the time. After just three months him and Laura decided to take the next step so George proposed and were married on November 5, 1977. After they were married, they settled in Midland, Texas, so George can continue to work on his business. Prior to his marriage George had a serious drinking problem and then joined the United Methodist Church and was a born-again Christian. In 1981, George and Laura had their first children, which turned out to be twin girls. Five years later, Bush sold his struggling oil business to Harken Energy Corporation for stock a spot on its board of directors. Around when this happened George had completely quit drinking and became deeply involved in his church. When George’s dad was running for president, George W. Bush and Laura moved his family to Washington, DC to help his father’s campaign. After George H. W. Bush won the election, George W. Bush and Laura Bush moved back to Texas and shortly after getting involved with investors trying to purchase the Texas Rangers . George W. Bush was quickly qualified as their leader and made amazing trades. After those trades the team did excellent and he eventually sold his team for seventeen times his initial investment. In 1992 after his father lost to Bill Clinton in a reelection, George W. Bush decided to run for governor of Texas as a Republican. His family reputation and his affiliation with the Rangers helped him win the 1994 campaign against Ann Richards. The election was tight the whole time, but George won the election with a fifty-three percent vote and was also the first governor to have a father as president. He was also the first Texas Governor to be elected to consecutive four-year terms. When Bush was a governor, he mainly appealed to republicans but also was well known for bipartisan governing. He combined personal responsibility and limited government. Since Bush was governor during a surplus he pushed for tax cuts and better education. He changed teachers’ salaries to student perf ormance on standardized tests and lowered the age of being tried in an adult court.[1] In 2000, Bush and his running mate Dick Cheney, who had been a former congressman and U.S. defense secretary under George H.W. Bush, had just defeated Al Gore and Joe Lieberman, U.S. Senator from Connecticut, by a very slim margin of 271-266 electoral votes even though Gore had beaten Bush with the popular vote by 48.4% to Bush’s 47.9%. This has been the fourth time this had ever happened in U.S. History.[2] One of the first things and one of the best domestic achievements Bush’s Administration worked on was public education. The first major initiative was the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002, this helped the public education system and raised test scores. Bush increased Peel Grants available to college students and they were raised to an all-time high. The tax relief package was another thing Bush was well known for. This package reduced individual taxes and doubles child tax credit and other reforms. On September 11, 2001 the most deadly attack on American soil happened unexpectedly and Bush’s Presidency was completely altered. On this day, terrorists from the group Al Qaeda hijacked four airplanes, two of the airplanes were ordered to hit the twin towers of the World Trade Center. Another was told to hit the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. The final plane crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after the passengers made a bold move to overtake the hijackers. When this happened President Bush declared war on Terrorism. This became an assault on anyone who had the twisted mind to support terrorism around the world. As a result of this effort the Afghanistan War started in October of 2001 and then the War in Iraq in 2003. This was actually Bush’s greatest failures in doing this it made the United States look like we were marked by fear, confusion and vulnerability.[3] George Bush’s greatest domestic failure was the way he tried to handle Hurricane Katrina, his attempt was just too slow. Bush sent in federal troops in days after the catastrophe and it took even longer for the troops to get there because of the road conditions. People were dying on top of their roofs of starvation and thirst waiting for some type of evacuation. News teams got there the first day it all went down asking questions about why troops were not showing up to bring aid to all of the unfortunate people. Bush’s administration was heavily criticized for the way this was handled and it showed when Bush’s public support went from sixty percent to forty-nine percent within two weeks.[4] George Bush did not have a lot of foreign achievements, but one of the best has to be humanitarian aid in Africa. In 2003 President Bush announced the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, otherwise known as PEPFAR, was a global program to fight AIDS. This was the largest effort ever created to fight a disease. In July 2008 a reaut horization was passed to add funding to tuberculosis and malaria as well, all of this cost 48 billion U.S. Dollars. This is all a part of President Bush’s emphasis on foreign aid in Africa. Thanks to George Bush tons of Africans get thousands of dollars of medicine for free. [5] But like all presidencies they must come to an end. Many people were against him having bumper stickers saying â€Å"Bush Lied, People Died†. Other people thought he was a not really a republican. Despite all of that most people will still talk about President Bush and say he an average leader who achieved much redemption just as the United States gave up.[6] Bibliography â€Å"Bushs Biggest Achievements.† N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Dec. 2014. http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2008/08/bushs-biggest-achievements>. â€Å"Bushs Legacy.† N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Dec. 2014. http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21588363-best-account-yet-failed-presidency-bushs-legacy>. George Bushs Greatest Achievements and Failures.† Accessed December 7, 2014.http://siirispolitics.blogspot.com/2010/11/what-are-george-w-bushs-greatest.html. â€Å"George W. Bush,†, accessed December 7, 2014,http://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/george-w-bush. George W. Bush.† N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Dec. 2014. http://www.georgewbushlibrary.smu.edu/The-President-and-Family/George-W-Bush.aspx>. George Walker Bush. (2014). The Biography.com website. Retrieved 08:26, Dec 07, 2014, fromhttp://www.biography.com/people/george-w-bush-9232768. [1] George Walker Bush. (2014). The Biography.com website. Retrieved 08:26, Dec 07, 2014, fromhttp://www.biography.com/people/george-w-bush-9232768. [2] â€Å"George W. Bush,†, accessed December 7, 2014,http://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/george-w-bush. [3] George W. Bush.† N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Dec. 2014. http://www.georgewbushlibrary.smu.edu/The-President-and-Family/George-W-Bush.aspx>. [4] George Bushs Greatest Achievements and Failures.† Accessed December 7, 2014.http://siirispolitics.blogspot.com/2010/11/what-are-george-w-bushs-greatest.html. [5] â€Å"Bushs Biggest Achievements.† N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Dec. 2014. http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2008/08/bushs-biggest-achievements>. [6] â€Å"Bushs Legacy.† N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Dec. 2014. http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21588363-best-account-yet-failed-presidency-bushs-legacy>.

Annual marketing plan of general motors

Annual marketing plan of general motors An annual marketing plan is a powerful management tool for business organizations targeting to strengthen their market positions. The plan provides a guide on all marketing activities for an entire financial year. A good marketing plan is obtained from a strategic marketing study and research based on a particular organization. In this essay, we focus on General Motors Companys annual marketing plan which contains its situation analysis, marketing objectives, strategies, tactics, financial considerations and a timetable for implementation. A situation analysis provides a general understanding of General Motors internal and external business environments (Brown Ph D Brown, 2008). This is the analysis of the company, customers, collaborators, competitors and the climate (NetMBA.com, 2010). The company is one of the worlds largest automaker with several years of experience and operating in over 157 countries in the world and has its headquarters in Detroit. It sells and services vehicles through several known brands such as Chevrolet and FAW among others. The company is well known brand name in the competitive automotive industry and uses the latest technology in managing its entire marketing network all over the world. The companys culture is to produce and sell high quality vehicles and services to the entire world. Moreover, greatest goal is to retain all its customers for the future service provision. In addition, the company has a diverse supplier base which provides quality raw materials for its production process. The supplier diversity ensures that the company gets the best for its investments which go a long way in customer satisfaction (General Motors, 2010). The company has a very huge world market with broad customer base which is being targeted by its marketing plan. These customers are provided with timely discounts on vehicle sales as well as services which motivate them thus increasing purchases. Also, the company is in a very competitive automotive industry facing actual threat from existing players such as Toyota and other potential new entrants. Currently, the Worlds political and regulatory environment is stable and favors the company good performance. On the other hand, the economic environment is still recovering from recession which decreased customers purchasing power. However, the new technology and the social environment are good for the companys marketing strategies (General Motors, 2010). The marketing objectives of General Motors include the recovering the lost market share by the end of the year. This is because recently the company lost United States market share to Ford Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. The second company objective is to increase its annual sales revenue by over 30 %. This is to recover from its fall of light-vehicle sales by 5.7 % and also to counter Ford and Toyota sales which have soared over 30 % respectively (Bloomberg, 2010). Another marketing strategy is to position itself in the market for easy and quick introduction of new innovative products and services throughout the year. This is because the company uses its innovative strategies to meet dynamic customer demands for automotives which require appropriate marketing plan. Moreover, the company aims to improve its corporate image throughout the year as well as raise public awareness of all its automotive models and services (Berry Wilson, 2000). The company marketing strategies will include; advertising, sales promotion, publicity and direct marketing. The advertisements will entail the paid spaces and airtime on the broadcast and print media. Moreover, the outdoor advertisements with huge pictures of the model vehicles could attract new and existing customers. The sales promotion involves the use of incentives and offers that encourage the population to purchase its products and services at specific times. The publicity is that awareness created by the information and opinion carried by third parties about the companys automotives and services. The direct marketing involves the personal presentation to customers or prospective buyers on the vehicle performances and services offered. This direct marketing can be done through any convenient mode of correspondence between the company employees and the target customers (Mullin Cummins, 2008). The tactics to be employed by the company are aimed at maximizing the achievement of specific marketing objectives through particular strategies. The major tactic is for the company to engage integrated marketing which utilizes the four strategic marketing tools in a balanced way to achieve its objectives. For instance, General Motors is an industrial company and as such most emphasis should be put on direct marketing. In addition, the company will select specific periods within the year to carry out sales promotion aimed at acquiring short term sales targets. Moreover, the advertisement strategy is worth monitoring so as to use the most appropriate advertisement media such as the internet, newspaper or broadcast. Furthermore, the publicity tool will constantly be in use when the company offers good products and services to third parties who in turn speak about the company thus achieving indirect marketing (Mullin Cummins, 2008). The financial consideration for the companys marketing plan is to ensure that the benefits value exceed the marketing expenses. The marketing expenses will be monitored throughout the entire year to avoid any budget variances. The marketing plan affects the sales, cost of sales and the marketing expenses all of which directly affects profitability and cash flow. Therefore financial consideration is very important for any effective marketing plan (Berry Wilson, 2000). The timetable of implementation of this marketing plan begins immediately and will run through the entire financial year. The various marketing strategies and tools will be used appropriately at different times and sometimes blended to achieve maximum objectives. The final marketing report will be prepared at the end of the year for the appraisal purposes. This final report will be used further in the preparation of the next annual marketing plan. In conclusion, an annual marketing plan is a crucial management tool that is used by General Motors to achieve their management objectives.

The Mathematical Theory of Communication by Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver :: Information Theory Research Report

The Mathematical Theory of Communication by Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver For my research report, I read The Mathematical Theory of Communication by Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver. This book is an in-depth description of their theory. While I will focus mostly on Weaver's translation and application of information, I will also touch on the theory's core ideas as explained by Shannon. The information theory is the extentsion of Nyquist's and Hartley's origingal ideas on the subject. However, Claude Shannon includes new factors such as "the effect of noise in the channel, and savings possible due to statistical structure of the original message and due to the nature of the final destination of information." Shannon's ideas were based on the fundamental problem in communication, which he described as the "difficulty of reproducing at one point the message selected at another point." The most significant aspect is that the actual message sent is one "selected from a set" of possible messages. A system had to be formed to work for each possible selection. Shannon also constructed the Linear Model of Communication. It is rare to see a communication text book that doesn't include this model, or a model that is based on this one. However, modifications had to be made because Shannon and Weaver both overlooked the importance of feedback. Warren Weaver helps us understand Shannon's complex theory by explaining it in layman's terms. Weaver uses the word "communication" in a broad sense to incorporate all the different ways one person's mind could affect another. Basically, it encompasses all human behavior. Weaver simplistically describes the three levels of communication problems. The first level, Level A, is the technical problem. The technical problems deal with the transfer of sets of signals from sender to sender. These sets of signals could be as simple as written speech or as complex as telephone or television transmission. The second level (Level B) is concerned with the understanding and interpretation of the meaning by the receiver when compared with the intended meaning of the sender. Level B is referred to as semantics problems. Level C, the effectiveness problems, is the final communication problem. It is concerned with how well the meaning is conveyed to the receiver. Weaver goes on to describe numerous problems within each of the previous three. One of the major problems in each of these categories was that of entropy. Entropy may be simply defined as randomness.

Memorial Hall in Philadelphia :: Architecture History

Memorial Hall The massive domed building in Fairmont Park, Philadelphia, is the only major structure remaining from the Centennial Exhibition in 1876. Memorial Hall served as the Art Gallery for the fair and was designed to become a permanent museum. The building was commissioned and paid for by the State of Pennsylvania and the city of Philadelphia. The budgeted amount for the hall was $1,500,000 and it cost just $64,000 more than planned. Although smaller than other major buildings at the 1876 fair, Memorial Hall is massive. Its footprint takes up an acre and a half. It is 365 by 210 feet, and 59 feet tall, with a 150-foot dome sitting on top. Below the building is a 12-foot deep basement. Perched atop the dome is a statue of Columbia standing 23 feet 6 inches tall. Three arched doorways each 15 feet wide and 40 feet high mark the entrance to the hall. The doors of the archways are made of iron and have bronze panels with reliefs of the coat of arms of each state and territory. The United States coat of arms is in the center. Between the arches are two clustered columns crowned with small statuettes symbolizing Science and Art. Around the base of the dome are four statues, set on the corners, representing Commerce, Industry, Mining, and Agriculture. The main entrance opens to a hall 82 feet deep, 60 feet wide, and 53 feet high. From this room three doors lead into the central hall, which is 83 feet square with a ceiling raised to 80 feet under the dome. To either side of the central hall are the main galleries, each measuring 98 by, 84 feet, and 35 feet high. When the temporary dividers are removed and the galleries join the main hall, they create what was at the time the largest hall in the country. This combined hall can be 287 feet long, by 85 feet wide, enough to hold 8,000 people. Above the hall is a grand balcony promenade 275 feet long and 45 feet wide, from which one can overlook the beautiful northern quadrant. Overall the building provides 75,000 square feet of wall surface for paintings and 20,000 of floor space for sculptures. Raised on a six-foot platform overlooking the Schuylkill River, Memorial Hall housed the first international art exhibit in the United States. Participating countries contributed so many works that even this massive structure could not showcase them all.

Scholarships for Artistic Students :: Argumentative Persuasive papers

Scholarships for Artistic Students 1. Purpose College is an important part in continuing education and is also the best time for students to hone their skills and become the best in their field as possible. Inclusion of support, both financial and mental, is instrumental in achieving a college education, and should be given in equal amounts to both athletic and artistic students. But each year, numerous athletes around the United States are offered college scholarships to recognize them for their talent and to encourage them to play at the university awarding the scholarship. At the same time, the same amount of equally artistically talented students are left to pay for college themselves because they are not offered as many scholarships as athletes are. This unfair and unequal distribution of scholarships is a threat to college education of artistic students everywhere. It is a problem that occurs at every university in the United States, including Iowa State University, and it is a policy that needs to be changed so that colle ge is an equally beneficial period for athlete and artist alike. 2. Scope In this paper, I will be comparing information about the athletic and artistic scholarships offered at Iowa State University. As I do so, I will focus on the difference in number, criteria, and cash awarded by these scholarships. I will discuss the needs for the change of this policy, the ideas I have of how to change it, the benefits that will result from changing this policy, and how to implement these changes. 3. History and Needs According to a list of scholarships distributed by Iowa State itself, a greater number of athletic scholarships are offered by the college than there are artistic scholarships. With scholarships available in every sport played at Iowa State, the chances that an athlete will receive a scholarship are much higher than that of an artistic student. In fact, according to the information given by Iowa State, it is five times more likely that an incoming athletic student will receive more scholarships than an equally qualified art student will. The reason for such a difference is that mostly general scholarships are offered to artistic students, and these scholarships are offered to all students, including athletes, thus making the competition and chances of receiving such scholarships much harder. The scholarships offered by Iowa State should be in equal amounts, especially those that are focused on specifically art and athletics.

Logistical and dramatic factors to be decided upon in a production of Philadelphia Essay

Friel raises issues, explores them to a certain degree. However the end is left open. The play â€Å"Philadelphia, Here I Come!† is both realistic as it presents real life situation, but also expressionistic, trying to dig into Gar’s subconscious. Gar has a choice to make, ultimatum that could vary depending if S.B. was to reveal his true emotions towards his son. Gar lacks the same attribute as his father; the ability to communicate with one another. Gar also failed to make an oral impression on Katie’s father in the past and this element cost him her hand in marriage. We are presented with Private Gar and Public Gar on the stage. Public Gar is the Gar that people see, talk to and talk about. Private Gar is the unseen character, the alter ego of our main hero. Although Public Gar is the only person that can hear Private talk he never looks at him, he cannot look at his alter ego. On stage two characters play Public and Private. One utters what is acceptable and the other utters what he’d really like to say if he wasn’t so inhabited. The central struggle is not between the public and private but between Gar both private and public and his father S.B. Apples don’t fall far from the tree, also outlined in the play by Madge who describes them as â€Å"two peas† that way Gar and S.B. are very similar, they are both afraid and embarrassed of expressing themselves emotionally. Neither one of them wants to look soft nor weak in front of one another, being emotionless proves their masculinity. Gar cannot think straight talking to his father, he contradicts with his thoughts and feels awkward just like he did asking Katie’s parents for her hand in marriage. Eventually we are taken back in time via flashback where we see Gar and Katie in love, they are planning to get married although Gar doesn’t earn enough to support them both, he is afraid to ask S.B. for a rise. Friel made a very deep and realistic attempt to present an ordinary Irish family and problems they are faced with, lack of money in the sixties and most importantly the overdose of masculinity which leads to lack of communication between father and son, issue that may occur in many people’s lives. Music is used to outline the mood changes and current flow of emotions of certain characters; Gar uses a turntable to present his mood and eventually gets frustrated and changes the record to a much more dynamic track, this way author presents the emotions of characters to the audience. The piece of music seems to suggest anxiety, change, and excitement – all emotions that Gar is feeling at that particular moment. This way Brial Friel attempts to dig into Gar’s subconscious. There is a nearly institutional quality to the shades of green, and the dim overhead lighting focuses attention in the central spaces over the kitchen table and Gar’s bed in the two rooms of the split set. Almost everything happens round the kitchen table, Gar’s friends drink and talk, S.B. plays a game with Cannon, Gar talk to S.B. about irrelevant stuff. The entire play happens within twenty-four hours and we are reminded of it throughout by the highlighted clock in the kitchen and clamorous sounds of the clock ticking in between the events. This way, Friel wants to point out the inner conflict of our main hero of the play, his time is running out and eventually, it will be for him to decide whether he leaves for Philadelphia or stays in Ballybeg. This is a play about finding one’s place in the world wherever that might be. Madge clears out some of the unresolved issues by telling us how Gar’s mother died and that S.B. in fact does have feelings but is unable to show them in public, it buggers him and he couldn’t get any sleep the night before Gar’s departure â€Å"It must have been near daybreak when he got to sleep last night†. Even though Gar’s new career in Philadelphia is meant to give him a new life, with lots of money and anything he would have ever wished for. Madge sees this as a way of escaping from Ballybeg and most importantly his father, â€Å"and when he’s the age of the boss, he’ll turn out just the same. And although I won’t be there to see it, you’ll find he’s learned nothing in between time†. Another important relationship is the one between Gar and Katie; they were in a serious relationship when they were younger. Her Father, Senator Doogan refused for them to marry after Gar miserably failed to make a positive verbal impression on Katie’s father. This scene is presented with a flashback where Gar’s mind flows back in time to that particular event. Kathy and Gar are happy together in his vision, Private Gar sarcastically responds to Kathy’s concerns about their possible future and money issues, â€Å"(imitating) how will we live?† Gar often repeated Edmond Burke’s speech on French Revolution â€Å"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the Queen of France, then the Dauphiness, at Versailles† he eventually realises that all this time he has been thinking about Kathy Doogan, this way Friel dug deep inside Gar’s subconscious by revealing his repression of emotions. In the end we don’t know whether he leaves for Philadelphia or stays in Ballybeg. Friel decided to keep the ending opened it’s for us to figure out whether he has any reason to leave or perhaps stay. In conclusion, Friel uses many stage directions to connect the audience with the characters. He presents us with Private Gar, alter ego that raises many concerns about his inner feelings, which we wouldn’t know about if Friel was to use just Public Gar. Flashback is presented to show previous events from the past in order to get deeper understanding of Gar. Music is outlined in the play to show Gar’s current emotions and their change for example we can tell his mood changes as he decides to play a much faster song. The entire play happens within twenty-four and we are reminded of it by the highlighted clock in the kitchen and clamorous sounds of it in between the scenes. Issue of the lack of communication between Gar and S.B. never gets resolved; we can tell that both of the characters suffer, as they’d like to express themselves. In the end with an open ending and not much gets resolved. It’s up to the reader to put the events in order and make personal judgement on the possible outcomes that may have resulted in the play.   

John Cage Essay

John Cage was one of the artists who moved the furthest away from â€Å"tradition. † Cage himself says that he was trying to accomplish what Ives wanted many years before: to be able to sit on the back doorstep at sundown, listening to the music. In continuing and expanding the Ivesian tradition, Cage shattered the old notions of music as organized sound consisting of melody, harmony, and rhythm (Nicholls, 2007). He wondered why music had to be these things. His questioning led to new concepts of how musical elements could be freed from the restraints imposed on them by conventional thinking. Most music contains only a few of the available pitches. Melody in its most elementary sense draws attention to a single line, which is a rather primitive way of perceiving music. Rhythm in which eventsoccur â€Å"in time† is also limiting. Why, within a particular space of time, can an event not happen at any point, its rhythmic aspects thus being freed from time in the more traditional sense? As Cage puts it: â€Å"In a painting an image can go anywhere on the canvas. Why can’t a rhythm do the same thing within the framework of a piece of music? † Cage’s revolutionary ideas have led to many innovations. He is usually credited with having invented â€Å"chance music,† music created under conditions that leave certain of its parts to the vagaries of the moment (Nicholls, 2007). Virgil Thomson notes that chance in composition is rather like a kaleidoscope, and â€Å"what kaleidoscopes and arabesques lack is urgency† (Grant, 2001, p. 243). The music may not always have this quality, a condition that can ultimately hinder its expression in purely musical terms. But there is a new kind of musical awareness, a vitality of thought and of imagination. Cage has redefined the entire concept of direction in music, since he has not been particularly interested in where events are going. Rather, he is more intrigued with the moment and with the possibilities of what can happen during that moment. Cage has also thought about music’s purpose, deciding that actually there does not have to be any intent, that sounds alone can be the purpose. He says that â€Å"a sound accomplishes nothing; without it life would not last out the instant†( Pritchett, 1996). His aesthetic that everything is music is important, for it opens countless possibilities. Cage’s ideas have made a generation of composers rethink concepts that were taken too much for granted or were ruled out of musical consideration by previous generations. These concepts have, in fact, furthered music beyond its old boundaries. Many of Cage’s works are famous because of the revolutionary concepts that formed them. The composition for piano that consists of four minutes, thirty-three seconds of silence, 4? 3? , is a case in point. To dismiss the work as a gimmick or as insignificant because it really is not music is to miss the point. Composers have pondered the silences in music in previous ages, but it took Cage to realize that silence itself was an opportunity for a complete work and a complete experience. According to Cage, silence is deciding in favor of sounds that are not intended. And Cage feels that silence has philosophical overtones, for it strikes the foundations of the ego. 4? 33? is a difficult work, for there is so much to hear–nothing–and it is a memorable experience, for it shows a world of multiplicity, something that interests Cage far more than aspects of unity within a particular work (Pritchett, 1996). Because anything is possible in Cage’s compositional process, some works are highly organized, while others give an outward impression of random and unrelated orderings. Most of his early pieces, among them the 5 Songs for Contralto (1938) and the Quartet for Twelve Tom-Toms (1943), are carefully conceived and conventionally notated. Music of Changes (1951) was created with the aid of the Chinese book of changes, I Ching, one of Cage’s favorite aids in the evolution of a work (Pritchett, 1996). In addition to his novel approaches to the general aspects of composition, Cage utilizes fascinating â€Å"instruments† in some of hispieces. He has written compositions containing parts for brake drums. He has composed music for toy piano. Cage, in fact, has not rejected any possibility if that possibility has an intriguing sound. Thus, the amplified sound of water being swallowed, of a glass breaking or clinking, and of a balloon bursting are excellent sources, as good in their way as a piano or a trombone (Kostelanetz, 1991). Cage’s love of both conventional and unconventional sounds has made him reconsider the various traditional instruments and how they can be changed to produce a new result. One of these investigations resulted in the â€Å"prepared piano,† which consists of objects such as nails, bolts, pins, and other materials placed between the strings of a piano, creating a diversity of different timbres. Henry Cowell had experimented with various possibilities of piano sonorities earlier in the century, including playing on the inside of the instrument, and Cage was undoubtedly influenced by some of Cowell’s discoveries. But in most respects, Cage’s is an original concept. As a result of his pioneering efforts, the prepared piano is for all practical purposes a new instrument, reminiscent of a Balinese gamelan orchestra (Kostelanetz, 1991). Another unusual effect occurs in The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs, a song for voice and piano in which the pianist plays on the piano lid and on various other wooden parts of the instrument rather than on the keys. The piano, in other words, has many sound possibilities from which Cage has realized a diversity of new and unusual timbres (Pritchett, 1996). Cage has been accused of being narrow-minded, of only working with novelties and current avant-garde fashions. This is untrue. Cage actually is an important figure whose mind is an open one and whose â€Å"novelty-fashions† in their total implications are significant and even visionary. They are not fraudulent, nor are they aimed at the destruction of Western musical civilization, although Cage has been accused of that and of just about everything else by his critics. The problem is simply that to the casual observer Cage’s music is undisciplined. But this is also false. In some of his works chance itself is the discipline, a â€Å"method† that is used to bring about that which is not necessarily intended. The compositional premises behind one of Cage’s latest works, the Etudes Australes, is proof that there is a definite method behind chance procedures and that the results can present as unified a whole as if more conventional methods of organization had been employed (Patterson, 2001). Cage reports that the pieces created the impression of serial music to some listeners, and indeed the uncompromising aspects of the method of creation and the resulting combinations of pitches from that procedure would undoubtedly give an audience an impression of â€Å"twelve-tone† writing. Strictly speaking, of course, it is usually impossible to tell if a work is serial simply by listening to it (Cage, 1966). Yet this association proves a point, for to mistake the chance operations of Cage for serial procedures is to demonstrate that two different â€Å"methods† can produce similar aural results. For a serial composer, serial procedures provide the answers to most of the compositional questions and to the continuity within a particular piece. For Cage, chance operations answer the compositional questions, and from these procedures a continuity of musical expression develops. One of Cage’s literary methods is a further example of the logical use of chance operations. In trying to find a title for a book of writings that in a typical Cage manner contains a liberal sprinkling of absurdities. Cage subjected the twenty-six letters of the alphabet to a chance operation with the help of the I Ching. The letter â€Å"m† was the winner, and the book was subsequently entitled M. Although any letter would have worked as well, Cage noted that â€Å"m† was a good choice and particularly appropriate because it begins the names of many of his favorite people and things, among them music, mushrooms, Modern Music, and Mao Tse-tung. It was an absurd method for choosing an absurd title for a book of absurdities! Another aspect of Cage’s writing demonstrates more positive and visionary qualities of his music. Prelude for Meditation for Prepared Piano Solo (1944) is early Cage, and the preparation of the piano involves stove bolts and wood screws(Patterson, 2001). This piece, like 4? 33? , can be viewed initially and superficially as one event–a monolith. Within this monolithic experience is an inner world of relationships, of sounds and events that reach far beyond the two pitch classes that Cage employs. The philosophical concept behind a work such as this is simple: why should a piece of music begin, develop itself in intricate ways, and prove itself by an infinite variety that keeps an interest going in the work itself? Why should the variety not be of a different kind? A piece of music can simply suspend itself in time, although time itself is usually conceived as a terribly limiting artistic commodity. Pieces begin and pieces end. What about what is before the beginning and after the ending? Time, itself a measured fragment of eternity, is always there on either side of an experience of any kind, and, in effect, what happens within the time of a work need not always make the time pass but rather might make it exist within a vacuum, within a world of monolithic yet many-faceted events. Cage’s work is an early example of what has become a new aspect of musical experience. Other composers began thinking about the possibilities of the monolith, and numerous examples have been written in the last quarter of a century. La Monte Young Composition 1960 #7 is a case in point. The work consists of two pitch classes, a B and an F-sharp (the relationship to Cage Prelude for Meditation is obvious), which the composer says should be held â€Å"for a long time. † In 1961 the work was played in New York by a string trio, and the forty-five minute duration of that particular reading resulted in â€Å"a whole world of fluctuating overtones† for those who were willing to listen (Patterson, 2001). Experimental composers are not nearly as outrageous as their critics might think. Even a work that attempts by its chance procedures or other random methods of construction to be formless still achieves a form, which, in turn, expands our conception of â€Å"form. † For example, if a composer writes some musical fragments on notecards, shuffles the cards, and then plays the music in the order in which it appears, there will be many different orderings but always the same music, rearranged each time. If one writes a chance piece for ten players with ten instruments, there is a limitation in the fact that the performers are ten, that the instruments are ten, and that the efforts are taking place within an inescapable time span. A composer cannot, in other words, achieve complete freedom, complete formlessness, for that is an impossibility. What a composer can do is achieve a new musical result. References Cage, John. (1966). Silence: Lectures and Writings. The MIT Press; New Ed edition. Grant, Mark N. (2001). Maestros of the Pen: A History of Classical Music Criticism in America. Northeastern University Press. Kostelanetz, Richard. (1991). John Cage: An Anthology. Da Capo Press. Nicholls, David. (2007). John Cage (American Composers). University of Illinois Press. Patterson, David W. (2001). John Cage: Music, Philosophy, and Intention, 1933-1950 (Studies in Contemporary Music Andculture). Routledge; 1 edition. Pritchett, James. (1996). The Music of John Cage (Music in the Twentieth Century). Cambridge University Press.