The senior John Cage was, indeed, a successful inventor: his improvements in submarine detection devices were adopted by the U.S. Navy during World War I. He and his wife had moved from Colorado to California, largely to escape the restrictive attitudes of their small town. Their only surviving child showed an interest in music at an early age. He studied piano with an aunt and expressed admiration for the music of Edvard Grieg (1843-1907). More important, he displayed early...