Catch 44 (1971)

Catch 44, co-produced by Nam June Paik, fuses Cage's compositional precepts with the immediacy and real time of video. Cage is seen performing and preparing for the program "WGBX: A Telecast for Composers and Technicians," presented by the Boston public television station WGBX-TV (Channel 44). Subverting audience expectations and underlining Cage's belief that improvisation is a critical element of composition, here the act of scoring music becomes the performance. For Cage, whose work embraces paradox, the ambient noise of the broadcast studio and the alternation of sound and silence determine the nature and direction of the performance from moment to moment. Through his use of repetition, absurdity, found sound and silence, Cage compels the audience to rethink traditional assumptions of musical theory and composition.