Come to think of it, I'm really not sure if this is what he had in mind. 

I had no idea who John Cage was.  I found several performances on YouTube.

"I've Got a Secret (1954)"

Water Walk for Bathtub, Rubber Duckie, etc.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yybn6iKmYdQ

13 Harmonies (of 42 in the piece)

[Minimalist, but recognizable as music -- MEM] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BowyUXyNud4

Ocean of Sound

[Again minimalist, but still music -- MEM] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShH-Td3ZiKs

I qualify Water Walk as performance art, not music. We always experience a tension, perhaps a conflict, between the intention of the artist and the perception of the viewer or listener.  On Galt's Gulch Online, I said that conservatives perceive Atlas Shrugged as a political novel, when in fact, it is a love story. That brought angry exclamation points, but Scott Despasio weighed in with a quote from Ayn Rand. Regarding the "Richard Halley" performance in AS2, some in the Gulch objected to the modernistic dissonance as inappropriate or even ignorant of Rand's own intentions regarding Halley as a modern Rachmaninoff.  However, if  you listen to enough Rachmaninoff, you can hear those, as well. In fact, you can find them in Beethoven, whom Rand regarded as anti-life, again a conflict between the composer and the audience.

It is easy to dismiss Cage, and I do not have much invested in him, but I point to Terry Riley's In C, and other works that explore how little we need to convey information.  

• Believe it or not, Laura did her research and... she got that answer from Ayn Rand herself... 
  
  "... when asked by film producer Albert S. Ruddy if a screenplay could focus on the love story, Rand agreed and said, 'That's all it ever was.'" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_Shru...) 
  
  You have to remember that, for most of the actors, Atlas Shrugged was NEW and they had to hurry up and "get it" as quickly as they could. And, the depth of Atlas is not something you "get" in a week. As any person does while learning, Laura associated with what resonated with her. Rand's response to Ruddy struck a chord and she latched on to it. 
  
  Now, we can pontificate on exactly what Rand meant - it's a love story of self, it's a love story of life, it's a love story between a man and a woman, etc. - but in the end, yes... Atlas Shrugged is a love story, ESSENTIALLY. :)

http://www.galtsgulchonline.com/posts/d24f5b6/laura-regan-dagny-taggart-talks-about-atlas-shrugged-who-is-john-galt

 

The novel includes elements of mystery, romance, and science fiction.^[3][2] Rand referred to Atlas Shrugged as a mystery novel, "not about the murder of man's body, but about the murder — and rebirth — of man's spirit".^[9] Nonetheless, when asked by film producer Albert S. Ruddy if a screenplay could focus on the love story, Rand agreed and reportedly said, "That's all it ever was".^[4][5]

 

2.  Gladstein, Mimi Reisel (1999). The New Ayn Rand Companion. Westport: Greenwood Press. p. 42. ISBN 0-313-30321-5.

 

3. Dowd, Maureen (April 17, 2011). "Atlas Without Angelina". The New York Times. Retrieved July 30, 2012

 

4. McConnell, Scott (2010). 100 Voices: An Oral History of Ayn Rand. New York:New American Library. p. 507. ISBN 978-0-451-23130-7. OCLC 5556428

 

5. "The Making Of The Atlas Shrugged TV MiniSeries Albert Ruddy, Susan Black, Bill Collins". Prodos Institute Inc. 1999. Retrieved August 3, 2012.

 

9. Rubin, Harriet (September 15, 2007). "Ayn Rand's Literature of Capitalism". The New York Times.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_Shrugged

 

(Edited by Michael E. Marotta on 8/14, 7:40am)