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''4′33″'' is a
modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...
composition by American
experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs whe ...
composer
John Cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and Extended technique, non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one ...
. It was composed in 1952 for any instrument or combination of instruments; the score instructs performers not to play their instruments throughout the three movements. It is divided into three movements, lasting 30 seconds, two minutes and 23 seconds, and one minute and 40 seconds, respectively, although Cage later stated that the movements' durations can be determined by the musician. As suggested by the title, the composition lasts four minutes and 33 seconds. It is marked by
silence Silence is the absence of ambient hearing, audible sound, the emission of sounds of such low sound intensity, intensity that they do not draw attention to themselves, or the state of having ceased to produce sounds; this latter sense can be exten ...
except for ambient sound, which is intended to contribute to the performance. # ''4′33″'' was conceived around 1947–48, while Cage was working on the piano cycle '' Sonatas and Interludes.'' Many prior musical pieces were largely composed of silence, and silence played a notable role in his prior work, including ''Sonatas and Interludes''. His studies on
Zen Buddhism Zen (; from Chinese: '' Chán''; in Korean: ''Sŏn'', and Vietnamese: ''Thiền'') is a Mahayana Buddhist tradition that developed in China during the Tang dynasty by blending Indian Mahayana Buddhism, particularly Yogacara and Madhyamaka ph ...
during the late 1940s about chance music led him to acknowledge the value of silence in providing an opportunity to reflect on one's surroundings and psyche. Recent developments in
contemporary art Contemporary art is a term used to describe the art of today, generally referring to art produced from the 1970s onwards. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a ...
also bolstered Cage's understanding on silence, which he increasingly began to perceive as impossible after Rauschenberg's ''White Painting'' was first displayed. ''4′33″'' premiered in 1952 and was met with shock and widespread controversy; many musicologists revisited the very definition of music and questioned whether Cage's work qualified as such. In fact, Cage intended ''4′33″'' to be experimental—to test the audience's attitude to silence and prove that any auditory experience may constitute
music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...
, seeing that absolute silence cannot exist. Although ''4′33″'' is labelled as four minutes and thirty-three seconds of silence, Cage maintains that the ambient noises heard during the performance contribute to the composition. Since this counters the conventional involvement of
harmony In music, harmony is the concept of combining different sounds in order to create new, distinct musical ideas. Theories of harmony seek to describe or explain the effects created by distinct pitches or tones coinciding with one another; harm ...
and
melody A melody (), also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most literal sense, a melody is a combination of Pitch (music), pitch and rhythm, while more figurativel ...
in music, many musicologists consider ''4′33″'' to be the birth of
noise music Noise music is a genre of music that is characterised by the expressive use of noise. This type of music tends to challenge the distinction that is made in conventional musical practices between musical and non-musical sound. Noise music include ...
, and some have likened it to
Dada Dada () or Dadaism was an anti-establishment art movement that developed in 1915 in the context of the Great War and the earlier anti-art movement. Early centers for dadaism included Zürich and Berlin. Within a few years, the movement had s ...
ist art. ''4′33″'' also embodies the idea of musical indeterminacy, as the silence is subject to the individual's interpretation; thereby, one is encouraged to explore their surroundings and themselves, as stipulated by Lacanianism. ''4′33″'' greatly influenced modernist music, furthering the genres of noise music and silent music, which—whilst still controversial to this day—reverberate among many contemporary musicians. Cage re-explored the idea of silent composition in two later renditions: ''0′00″'' (1962) and ''One3'' (1989). In a 1982 interview, and on numerous other occasions, he stated that ''4′33″'' was his most important work. ''
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language '' Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and t ...
'' describes ''4′33″'' as Cage's "most famous and controversial creation". In 2013, Dale Eisinger of ''
Complex Complex commonly refers to: * Complexity, the behaviour of a system whose components interact in multiple ways so possible interactions are difficult to describe ** Complex system, a system composed of many components which may interact with each ...
'' ranked the composition eighth in his list of the greatest performance art works.


Background


The concept

The first time Cage mentioned the idea of a piece composed entirely of silence was during a 1947 (or 1948) lecture at
Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States. The college be ...
, ''A Composer's Confessions''. At this time, he was working on the cycle for piano ''Sonatas and Interludes''. Cage told the audience that he had "several new desires", one of which was: Prior to this, silence had played a major role in several of Cage's works composed before ''4′33″''. The ''Duet for Two Flutes'' (1934), composed when Cage was 22, opens with silence, and silence was an important structural element in some of the '' Sonatas and Interludes'' (1946–48), ''
Music of Changes ''Music of Changes'' is a piece for solo piano by John Cage. Composed in 1951 for pianist and friend David Tudor, it is a ground-breaking piece of Indeterminacy (music), indeterminate music. The process of composition involved applying decisions ...
'' (1951) and ''Two Pastorales'' (1951). The ''Concerto for prepared piano and orchestra'' (1951) closes with an extended silence, and ''Waiting'' (1952), a piano piece composed just a few months before ''4′33″'', consists of long silences framing a single, short
ostinato In music, an ostinato (; derived from the Italian word for ''stubborn'', compare English ''obstinate'') is a motif or phrase that persistently repeats in the same musical voice, frequently in the same pitch. Well-known ostinato-based pieces inc ...
pattern. Furthermore, in his songs '' The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs'' (1942) and '' A Flower'' (1950) Cage directs the pianist to play a closed instrument, which may be understood as a metaphor of silence. However, at the time of its conception, Cage felt that a fully silent piece would be incomprehensible, and was reluctant to write it down: "I didn't wish it to appear, even to me, as something easy to do or as a joke. I wanted to mean it utterly and be able to live with it." Painter Alfred Leslie recalls Cage presenting a "one-minute-of-silence talk" in front of a window during the late 1940s, while visiting Studio 35 at
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...
.


Precursors

Although he was a pioneer of silent music, Cage was not the first to compose it. Others, especially in the first half of the twentieth century, had already published related work, which possibly influenced Cage. As early as 1907,
Ferruccio Busoni Ferruccio Busoni (1 April 1866 – 27 July 1924) was an Italian composer, pianist, conductor, editor, writer, and teacher. His international career and reputation led him to work closely with many of the leading musicians, artists and literary ...
delineated the importance of silence in music: An example is the ''Funeral March for the Obsequies of a Deaf Man'' (in French: ''Marche funèbre composée pour les funérailles d'un grand homme sourd'') (1897) by Alphonse Allais, consisting of 24 empty measures. Allais was a companion of his fellow composer
Erik Satie Eric Alfred Leslie Satie (born 17 May 18661 July 1925), better known as Erik Satie, was a French composer and pianist. The son of a French father and a British mother, he studied at the Conservatoire de Paris, Paris Conservatoire but was an undi ...
, and, since Cage admired the latter, the ''Funeral March'' may have motivated him to compose ''4′33″'', but he later wrote that he was not aware of Allais' work at the time. Silent compositions of the twentieth century preceding Cage's include the 'In futurum' movement from the ''Fünf Pittoresken'' (1919) by
Erwin Schulhoff Erwin Schulhoff (; 8 June 189418 August 1942) was an Austro-Czech composer and pianist. He was one of the figures in the generation of European musicians whose successful careers were prematurely terminated by the rise of the Nazi regime in Germ ...
—solely comprising rests— and
Yves Klein Yves Klein (; 28 April 1928 – 6 June 1962) was a French artist and an important figure in post-war European art. He was a leading member of the French artistic movement of Nouveau réalisme founded in 1960 by art critic Pierre Restany. Klein wa ...
's ''Monotone–Silence Symphony'' (1949), in which the second and fourth movements are bare twenty minutes of silence. Similar ideas had been envisioned in literature. For instance, Harold Acton's prose fable ''Cornelian'' (1928) mentions a musician conducting "performances consisting largely of silence". In 1947, jazz musician Dave Tough joked that he was writing a play in which "a string quartet is playing the most advanced music ever written. It's made up entirely of rests ... Suddenly, the viola man jumps up in a rage and shakes his bow at the first violin. 'Lout', he screams, 'you played that last measure wrong'".


Direct influences


Zen Buddhism

Since the late 1940s, Cage had been studying
Zen Buddhism Zen (; from Chinese: '' Chán''; in Korean: ''Sŏn'', and Vietnamese: ''Thiền'') is a Mahayana Buddhist tradition that developed in China during the Tang dynasty by blending Indian Mahayana Buddhism, particularly Yogacara and Madhyamaka ph ...
, especially through Japanese scholar Daisetz Suzuki, who introduced the field to the Western World. Thereon, he connected sounds in silence to the notions of "unimpededness and interpenetration". In a 1951/1952 lecture, he defined unimpededness as "seeing that in all of space each thing and each human being is at the center", and interpenetration as the view "that each one of the hings and humans at the centeris moving out in all directions penetrating and being penetrated by every other one no matter what the time or what the space", concluding that "each and every thing in all of time and space is related to each and every other thing in all of time and space". Cage believed that sounds existed in a state of unimpededness, as each one is not hindered by the other due to them being isolated by silence, but also that they interpenetrate each other, since they work in tandem with each other and 'interact' with the silence. Hence, he thought that music is intrinsically an alternation between sound and silence, especially after his visit to
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
's
anechoic chamber An anechoic chamber (''an-echoic'' meaning "non-reflective" or "without echoes") is a room designed to stop reflection (physics), reflections or Echo (phenomenon), echoes of either sound or electromagnetic waves. They are also often isolate ...
. He increasingly began to see silence as an integral part of music since it allows for sounds to exist in the first place—to interpenetrate each other. The prevalence of silence in a composition also allowed the opportunity for contemplation on one's psyche and surroundings, reflecting the Zen emphasis on meditation music as means to soothe the mind. As he began to realize the impossibility of absolute silence, Cage affirmed the psychological significance of 'lack of sound' in a musical composition: In 1951, Cage composed the ''Concerto for Prepared Piano and Chamber Orchestra'', which can be seen as a representation of the concept of interpenetration.


Chance music

Cage also explored the concept of chance music—a composition without melodic structure or regular
notation In linguistics and semiotics, a notation system is a system of graphics or symbols, Character_(symbol), characters and abbreviated Expression (language), expressions, used (for example) in Artistic disciplines, artistic and scientific disciplines ...
. The aforementioned ''Concerto for Prepared Piano'' employs the concepts posited in the Ancient Chinese text ''
I Ching The ''I Ching'' or ''Yijing'' ( ), usually translated ''Book of Changes'' or ''Classic of Changes'', is an ancient Chinese divination text that is among the oldest of the Chinese classics. The ''I Ching'' was originally a divination manual in ...
''.


Visit to the anechoic chamber

In 1951, Cage visited the
anechoic chamber An anechoic chamber (''an-echoic'' meaning "non-reflective" or "without echoes") is a room designed to stop reflection (physics), reflections or Echo (phenomenon), echoes of either sound or electromagnetic waves. They are also often isolate ...
at
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
. Cage entered the chamber expecting to hear silence, but he later wrote: "I heard two sounds, one high and one low. When I described them to the engineer in charge, he informed me that the high one was my
nervous system In biology, the nervous system is the complex system, highly complex part of an animal that coordinates its behavior, actions and sense, sensory information by transmitting action potential, signals to and from different parts of its body. Th ...
in operation, the low one my blood in circulation". Cage had gone to a place where he expected total silence, and yet heard sound. "Until I die there will be sounds. And they will continue following my death. One need not fear about the future of music". The realization as he saw it of the impossibility of silence led to the composition of ''4′33″''.


''White Painting''

Another cited influence for this piece came from the field of the visual arts. Cage's friend and sometimes colleague
Robert Rauschenberg Milton Ernest "Robert" or "Bob" Rauschenberg (October 22, 1925 – May 12, 2008) was an American painter and graphic artist whose early works anticipated the Pop art movement. Rauschenberg is well known for his Combine painting, Combines (1954� ...
had produced, in 1951, a series of white paintings (collectively named ''White Painting''), seemingly "blank" canvases (though painted with white house paint) that in fact change according to varying light conditions in the rooms in which they were hung, the shadows of people in the room and so on. This inspired Cage to use a similar idea, as he later stated, "Actually what pushed me into it was not guts but the example of Robert Rauschenberg. His white paintings ... when I saw those, I said, 'Oh yes, I must. Otherwise I'm lagging, otherwise music is lagging'." In an introduction to an article "On Robert Rauschenberg, Artist, and His Works", John Cage writes: "To Whom It May Concern: The white paintings came first; my silent piece came later."


The composition


Premiere and initial reception

The premiere of the three-movement ''4′33″'' was given by David Tudor on August 29, 1952, in Maverick Concert Hall,
Woodstock, New York Woodstock is a Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in Ulster County, New York, United States, in the northern part of the county, northwest of Kingston, New York, Kingston. It lies within the borders of the Catskill Park. The popula ...
, as part of a recital of contemporary piano music. The audience saw him sit at the piano and, to mark the beginning of the piece, close the keyboard lid. Some time later he opened it briefly, to mark the end of the first movement. This process was repeated for the second and third movements. Although the audience was enthusiastic about contemporary art, the premiere was met with widespread controversy and scandal, such that Calvin Tomkins notes: "The Woodstock audience considered the piece either a joke or an affront, and this has been the general reaction of most people who have heard it, or heard of it, ever since. Some listeners have been unaware they were hearing it at all".


General reception

Music critic Kyle Gann called the piece "one of the most misunderstood pieces of music ever written and yet, at times, one of the avant-garde's best understood as well". He dismissed the idea that ''4′33″'' was a joke or a hoax, wrote that the theory of Dada and theater have some justification, and said that for him the composition is a "thought experiment". He concluded that the idea that ''4′33″'' is a "Zen practice" "may be the most directly fertile suggestion".


Analysis

The composition is an indispensable contribution to the Modernist movement and formalized noise music as a genre. Noise music is seen as the anathema to the traditional view of harmony in music, exploiting random sound patterns 'noise' in the process of making music—the "detritus of the music process". Paul Hegarty notes that: "The silence of the pianist in ''4′33″'' can be understood as the traditional silence of the audience so that it can appreciate the music being played. Music itself is sacrificed, sacrificed to the musicality of the world". For Hegarty, ''4′33″'', is made up of incidental sounds that represent perfectly the tension between "desirable" sound (properly played musical notes) and undesirable "noise" that make up all noise music. It is made of three movements.


Intentions

''4′33″'' challenges, or rather exploits to a radical extent, the social regiments of the modern concert life etiquette, experimenting on unsuspecting concert-goers to prove an important point. First, the choice of a prestigious venue and the social status of the composer and the performers automatically heightens audience's expectations for the piece. As a result, the listener is more focused, giving Cage's ''4′33″'' the same amount of attention (or perhaps even more) as if it were
Beethoven's Ninth Symphony The Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Opus number, Op. 125, is a choral symphony, the final complete symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven, composed between 1822 and 1824. It was first performed in Vienna on 7 May 1824. The symphony is regarded by many criti ...
. Thus, even before the performance, the reception of the work is already predetermined by the social setup of the concert. Furthermore, the audience's behavior is limited by the rules and regulation of the concert hall; they will quietly sit and listen to ''4′33″'' of ambient noise. It is not easy to get a large group of people to listen to ambient noise for nearly five minutes, unless they are regulated by the concert hall etiquette. The second point made by ''4′33″'' concerns duration. According to Cage, duration is the essential building block of all of music. This distinction is motivated by the fact that duration is the only element shared by both silence and sound. As a result, the underlying structure of any musical piece consists of an organized sequence of "time buckets". They could be filled with either sounds, silence or noise; where neither of these elements is absolutely necessary for completeness. In the spirit of his teacher Schoenberg, Cage managed to emancipate the silence and the noise to make it an acceptable or, perhaps, even an integral part of his music composition. ''4′33″'' serves as a radical and extreme illustration of this concept, asking that if the time buckets are the only necessary parts of the musical composition, then what stops the composer from filling them with no intentional sounds? The third point is that the work of music is defined not only by its content but also by the behavior it elicits from the audience. In the case of
Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ( – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer and conductor with French citizenship (from 1934) and American citizenship (from 1945). He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century c ...
's '' Rite of Spring'', this would consist of widespread dissatisfaction leading up to violent riots. In Cage's ''4′33″'', the audience felt cheated by having to listen to no composed sounds from the performer. Nevertheless, in ''4′33″'' the audience contributed the bulk of the musical material of the piece. Since the piece consists of exclusively ambient noise, the audience's behavior, their whispers and movements, are essential elements that fill the above-mentioned time buckets. Above all, ''4′33″''—in fact, more of an experiment than a composition—is intended to question the very notion of music. Cage believed that "silence is a real note" and "will henceforth designate all the sounds not wanted by the composer". He had the ambition to go beyond what is achievable on a piece of paper by leaving the musical process to chance, inviting the audience to closely monitor the ambient noises characterizing the piece. French musicologist Daniel Charles proposes a related theory; ''4′33″'' is—resulting from the composer's lack of interference in the piece—a '
happening A happening is a performance, event, or situation art, usually as performance art. The term was first used by Allan Kaprow in 1959 to describe a range of art-related events. History Origins Allan Kaprow first coined the term "happening" i ...
', since, during the performance, the musician is more of an actor than a 'musician', per se. He also notes that it resembles a Duchamp-style
found object A found object (a calque from the French ''objet trouvé''), or found art, is art created from undisguised, but often modified, items or products that are not normally considered materials from which art is made, often because they already hav ...
, due to the fact that it creates art from objects that do not serve an artistic function, as silence is often associated with the opposite of music. In fact, Cage's composition draws parallels to the
Dada Dada () or Dadaism was an anti-establishment art movement that developed in 1915 in the context of the Great War and the earlier anti-art movement. Early centers for dadaism included Zürich and Berlin. Within a few years, the movement had s ...
ist movement due to the involvement of 'anti-art' objects into art (music), its apparent nonsensical nature, and blatant defiance of the status quo.


Silence

The perceived silence characterizing Cage's composition is not actually 'silence', but the interference of the ambient sounds made by the audience and environment. To him, any auditory experience containing some degree of sound, and hence can be considered music, countering its frequent label as "four minutes thirty-three seconds of silence".


Psychological impact

The Lacanian approach implies a profound psychological connection to ''4′33″'', as the individual is invited to ponder their surroundings and psyche. In a 2013 TED talk, psychologist Paul Bloom put forward ''4′33″'' as one example to show that knowing about the origin of something influences how one formulates an opinion on it. In this case, one can deem the five minutes of silence in Cage's composition as different than five minutes of ordinary silence, as in a library, as they know where this silence originates; hence, they can feel motivated to pay to listen to ''4′33″'', even though it is inherently no different than five minutes of ordinary silence.


Surrealist automatism

Some musicologists have argued that ''4′33″'' is an example of
surrealist automatism Surrealist automatism is a method of art-making in which the artist suppresses conscious control over the making process, allowing the unconscious mind to have great sway. This drawing technique was popularized in the early 1920s, by Andre Masson ...
. Since the
Romantic Era Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. The purpose of the movement was to advocate for the importance of subjec ...
composers have been striving to produce music that could be separated from any social connections, transcending the boundaries of time and space. In automatism, composers and artists strive to eliminate their role in the creation of work, motivated by the belief that self-expression always includes the infiltration of the social standards—that the individual (including the musician) is subjected to from birth—in artistic truth (the message the musician wishes to convey). Therefore, the only method by which the listener can realize artistic truth involves the separation of the musician from their work. In ''4′33″'', the composer has no impact in his work, as Cage cannot control the ambient sounds detected by the audience. Hence, the composition is automatic since the musician has no involvement in how the listener interprets it.


Indeterminacy

A pioneer of musical indeterminacy, Cage defined it as "the ability of a piece to be performed in substantially different ways".


Versions


Of the score

Several versions of the score exist; the four below are the main samples that could be identified. Their shared quality is the composition's duration of four minutes and thirty-three seconds—reflected in the title ''4′33″''—Published score,
Edition Peters Edition Peters is a classical music publisher founded in Leipzig, Germany in 1800. History The company came into being on 1 December 1800 when the Viennese composer Franz Anton Hoffmeister (1754–1812) and the local organist Ambrosius Kühn ...
6777.
but there is some discrepancy between the lengths of individual movements, specified in different versions of the score. The causes of this discrepancy are not currently understood.


Woodstock manuscript and reproduction

The original Woodstock manuscript (August 1952) is written in conventional
notation In linguistics and semiotics, a notation system is a system of graphics or symbols, Character_(symbol), characters and abbreviated Expression (language), expressions, used (for example) in Artistic disciplines, artistic and scientific disciplines ...
and dedicated to David Tudor – the first to perform the piece. It is currently lost, but Tudor did attempt to recreate the original score, reproduced in William Fetterman's book ''John Cage's Theatre Pieces: Notations and Performances''. The reproduction notes that ''4′33″'' can be performed for any instrument or combination of instruments. Regarding tempo, it includes a
treble clef A clef (from French: 'key') is a musical symbol used to indicate which notes are represented by the lines and spaces on a musical staff. Placing a clef on a staff assigns a particular pitch to one of the five lines or four spaces, whi ...
staff with a 4/4
time signature A time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, and measure signature) is an indication in music notation that specifies how many note values of a particular type fit into each measure ( bar). The time signature indicates th ...
, and the beginning of each sentence is identified with
Roman numerals Roman numerals are a numeral system that originated in ancient Rome and remained the usual way of writing numbers throughout Europe well into the Late Middle Ages. Numbers are written with combinations of letters from the Latin alphabet, eac ...
and a scale indication: '60 uarter= 1/2-inch'. At the end of each sentence, there is information about each movement's duration in minutes and seconds; these are: 'I = 30 seconds', 'II = 2 minutes 23 seconds' and 'III = 1 minute 40 seconds'. Tudor commented: "It's important that you read the score as you're performing it, so there are these pages you use. So you wait, and then turn the page. I know it sounds very straight, but in the end it makes a difference".


Kremen manuscript

The Kremen manuscript (1953) is written in graphic, space-time notation—which Cage dubbed "proportional notation"—and dedicated to the American artist Irwin Kremen. The movements of the piece are rendered as space between long vertical lines; a
tempo In musical terminology, tempo (Italian for 'time'; plural 'tempos', or from the Italian plural), measured in beats per minute, is the speed or pace of a given musical composition, composition, and is often also an indication of the composition ...
indication is provided (60), and at the end of each movement the time is indicated in minutes and seconds. In page 4, the note '1 PAGE = 7 INCHES = 56″' is included. The same instructions, timing and indications to the reproduced Woodstock manuscript are implemented.


First Tacet Edition

The so-called ''First Tacet Edition'' (or ''Typed Tacet Edition'') (1960) is a typewritten score, originally printed in
Edition Peters Edition Peters is a classical music publisher founded in Leipzig, Germany in 1800. History The company came into being on 1 December 1800 when the Viennese composer Franz Anton Hoffmeister (1754–1812) and the local organist Ambrosius Kühn ...
as EP No. 6777. It lists the three movements using Roman numbers, with the word ' tacet' underneath each. A note by Cage describes the first performance and mentions that "the work may be performed by any instrumentalist or combination of instrumentalists and last any length of time". In doing so, Cage not only regulates the reading of the score, but also determines the identity of the composition. Conversely to the initial two manuscripts, Cage notes that the premiere organized the movements into the following durations: 33", 2'40" and 1'20", and adds that their length "must be found by chance" performance. The ''First Tacet Edition'' is described in
Michael Nyman Michael Laurence Nyman, Order of the British Empire, CBE (born 23 March 1944) is an English composer, pianist, libretto, librettist, musicologist, and filmmaker. He is known for numerous film soundtrack, scores (many written during his lengthy ...
's book ''Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond'', but is not reproduced.


''Second Tacet Edition''

The so-called ''Second Tacet Edition'' (or ''Calligraphic Tacet Edition'') (1986) is the same as the First, except that it is printed in Cage's calligraphy, and the explanatory note mentions the Kremen manuscript. It is also classified as EP No. 6777 (i.e., it carries the same catalog number as the first ''Tacet Edition''). Additionally, a facsimile, reduced in size, of the Kremen manuscript, appeared in July 1967 in ''Source'' 1, no. 2:46–54.


Of the composition itself


''4′33″ No. 2''

In 1962, Cage wrote ''0′00″'', which is also referred to as ''4′33″ No. 2''. The directions originally consisted of one sentence: "In a situation provided with maximum amplification, perform a disciplined action". At the first performance Cage had to write that sentence. The second performance added four new qualifications to the directions: "the performer should allow any interruptions of the action, the action should fulfill an obligation to others, the same action should not be used in more than one performance, and should not be the performance of a musical composition".


''One3''

In late 1989, three years before his death, Cage revisited the idea of ''4′33″'' one last time. He composed ''One3'', the full title of which is ''One3 = 4′33″ (0′00″) + 𝄞''. As in all of the Number Pieces, 'One' refers to the number of performers required. The score instructs the performer to build a
sound system Sound system may refer to: Technology media * Sound reinforcement system, a system for amplifying audio for an audience * High fidelity, a sound system intended for accurate reproduction of music in the home * Public address system, an institution ...
in the concert hall, so that "the whole hall is on the edge of
feedback Feedback occurs when outputs of a system are routed back as inputs as part of a chain of cause and effect that forms a circuit or loop. The system can then be said to ''feed back'' into itself. The notion of cause-and-effect has to be handle ...
, without actually feeding back". The content of the piece is the electronically amplified sound of the hall and the audience.


Plagiarism

In July 2002, Cage's heirs sued British singer-songwriter Mike Batt for plagiarism for the 'song' "A One Minute Silence": literally, a minute of silence. To support his crossover ensemble The Planets, he inserted a one-minute pause in their February 2002 album "Classical Graffiti" under the authorship 'Batt/Cage'— supposedly to honor the composer. He was then sued by the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society for "plagiarizing Cage's silence '4′33″'' Initially, Batt said he would defend himself against these accusations, stating that "A One Minute Silence" was "a much better silent piece" and that he was "able to say in one minute what Cage could only say in four minutes and 33 seconds". He eventually reached an out-of-court settlement with the composer's heirs in September 2002 and paid what was described at the time as a "six-figure sum" in compensation. However, in December 2010, Batt admitted that the alleged legal dispute had been a
publicity stunt In marketing, a publicity stunt is a planned event designed to attract the public's attention to the event's organizers or their cause. Publicity stunts can be professionally organized, or set up by amateurs. Such events are frequently utiliz ...
and that he had actually only made a donation of £1,000 to the ''John Cage Foundation''.


Christmas number one campaign

In the week leading up to Christmas 2010, a
Facebook page Facebook is a social-network service website launched on February 4, 2004, by Mark Zuckerberg. The following is a list of software and technology features that can be found on the Facebook website and mobile app and are available to users of ...
was created to encourage residents of the United Kingdom to buy a new rendition of ''4′33″'', in the hope that it would prevent the winner of the seventh series of ''The X Factor'', Matt Cardle, from topping the UK Singles Chart and becoming the Christmas number one. The page was inspired by a similar campaign the year prior, in which a Facebook page set up by English radio DJ Jon Morter and his then-wife Tracey, prompting people to buy
Rage Against the Machine Rage Against the Machine (often abbreviated as RATM or shortened to Rage) was an American Rock music, rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1991. It consisted of vocalist Zack de la Rocha, bassist and backing vocalist Tim ...
's " Killing in the Name" in the week before Christmas 2009 to make it the Christmas number one. Hence, the ''4′33″'' campaign was dubbed 'Cage Against the Machine'. The creators of the Facebook page hoped that reaching number one would promote Cage's composition and "make December 25 'a silent night'." The campaign received support from several celebrities. It first came into prominence after science writer Ben Goldacre mentioned it on his Twitter profile. Despite many similar campaigns occurring that year, ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' journalist Tom Ewing considered 'Cage Against the Machine' "the ''only'' effort this year with a hope of eaching number one. XFM DJ Eddy Temple-Morris and ''The Guardian'' journalist Luke Bainbridge also voiced their support. Ultimately, the rendition of ''4′33″'' failed to reach number one, only peaking at number 21 on the charts; the winning song of ''X Factor'' instead became Christmas number one of 2010.


Notable performances and recordings

Due to its unique avant-garde style, many musicians and groups have performed ''4′33″'', featuring in several works such as albums. *
Frank Zappa Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American guitarist, composer, and bandleader. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa composed Rock music, rock, Pop music, pop, jazz, jazz fusion, orchestra ...
recorded a version of the composition as part of the collaborative album ''A Chance Operation: The John Cage Tribute'', released by Koch Entertainment in 1993. * Several performances of ''4′33″'' including a 'techno remix' of the New Waver project were broadcast on Australian radio station ABC Classic FM, as part of a program exploring "sonic responses" to Cage's work. Another of these 'responses' was the rendition named 'You Can Make Your Own Music', recorded by the Swedish electronic band Covenant as part of their 2000 album '' United States of Mind''. * On January 16, 2004, at the
Barbican Centre The Barbican Centre is a performing arts centre in the Barbican Estate of the City of London, England, and the largest of its kind in Europe. The centre hosts classical and contemporary music concerts, theatre performances, film screenings a ...
in London, the
BBC Symphony Orchestra The BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBC SO) is a British orchestra based in London. Founded in 1930, it was the first permanent salaried orchestra in London, and is the only one of the city's five major symphony orchestras not to be self-governing. The ...
gave the United Kingdom's first orchestral performance of this work, conducted by Lawrence Foster. The performance was broadcast live on
BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, Radio drama, drama, High culture, culture and the arts ...
, and the station faced a unique problem; its emergency system—automatically switching on and playing separate music in a period of perceived silence ' dead air'—interrupted the broadcast, and had to be switched off. On the same day, a
tongue-in-cheek Tongue-in-cheek is an idiom that describes a humorous or sarcastic statement expressed in a serious manner. History The phrase originally expressed contempt, but by 1842 had acquired its modern meaning. Early users of the phrase include Sir Walte ...
version was recorded by the staff of ''The Guardian''. *
Living Colour Living Colour is an American rock music, rock band from New York City, formed in 1984. The band consists of guitarist Vernon Reid, lead vocalist Corey Glover, drummer Will Calhoun and bassist Doug Wimbish who replaced Muzz Skillings in 1992. T ...
released a recording of ''4′33″'' in 2009 as a hidden track on ''
The Chair in the Doorway ''The Chair in the Doorway'' is the fifth studio album by American rock band Living Colour, released on September 15, 2009. It was the band's first studio album since the release of '' Collideøscope'' in 2003, and their first release on Megaf ...
''. * On December 5, 2010, an international simultaneous performance of ''4′33″'' took place among 200 performers, amateur and professional musicians, and artists. The global orchestra, conducted live by Bob Dickinson, via video link, performed the piece in support of the 'Cage Against The Machine' campaign to bring ''4′33″'' to 2010 Christmas Number 1 in the UK Singles Chart. * On November 17, 2015, the television program ''
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert ''The Late Show with Stephen Colbert'' is an American late-night talk show, late-night news satire, news and liberal political satire talk show hosted by Stephen Colbert, which premiered on September 8, 2015. Produced by Stephen Colbert, Spartin ...
'' uploaded a video of the piece being performed by a cat, showing that its musician is not required to be human. * In May 2019,
Mute Records Mute Records is a British independent record label owned and founded in 1978 by Daniel Miller (music producer), Daniel Miller. It has featured several prominent musical acts on its roster such as Depeche Mode, Erasure (duo), Erasure, Einstürze ...
released a compilation box set entitled ''STUMM433'' featuring interpretations of ''4′33″'' by more than 50 artists who had collaborated with the record label, including Laibach,
Depeche Mode Depeche Mode are an English electronic music, electronic band formed in Basildon, Essex in 1980. Originally formed with the line-up of Dave Gahan, Martin Gore, Andy Fletcher (musician), Andy Fletcher and Vince Clarke, the band currently consists ...
, New Order, Cabaret Voltaire,
Einstürzende Neubauten (, 'Collapsing New Buildings') is a German experimental music group, formed in West Berlin in 1980. The band currently comprises founding members Blixa Bargeld (lead vocals, guitar, keyboard) and N.U. Unruh (custom-made instruments, percussion, ...
, Goldfrapp,
Moby Richard Melville Hall (September 11, 1965), known professionally as Moby, is an American musician, songwriter, record producer, disc jockey, and animal rights activist. He has sold 20 million records worldwide. AllMusic considers him to be "amo ...
, and Erasure. * On October 31, 2020, the
Berlin Philharmonic The Berlin Philharmonic () is a German orchestra based in Berlin. It is one of the most popular, acclaimed and well-respected orchestras in the world. Throughout the 20th century, the orchestra was led by conductors Wilhelm Furtwängler (1922� ...
closed their last concert before a government-mandated COVID-19 related lockdown with a performance of the piece, conducted by
Kirill Petrenko Kirill Garrievich Petrenko (, Latin script: ; born 11 February 1972) is a Russian-Austrian conductor. He is chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic. Early life Petrenko was born in Omsk, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union, to a violinist father and m ...
, "to draw attention to the plight of artists following the lockdown of cultural institutions". * In April 2024,
John McWhorter John Hamilton McWhorter V (; born October 6, 1965) is an American linguist. He is an associate professor of linguistics at Columbia University, where he also teaches American studies and music history. He has authored a number of books on race ...
refused to play ''4'33"'' to his class at
Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
due to chants coming from student protestors during the 2024 pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses. The decision gained media attention for misunderstanding the intent of the piece.


See also

* Monotone-Silence Symphony, a composition by Yves Klein featuring both sound and extended silence * '' Is This What We Want?'', an album by various artists, consisting of ambient noise recorded in recording studios, protesting the use of unlicensed copyrighted work to train artificial intelligence


Notes and references


Explanatory notes


Citations


Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


Further reading

* Arns, Inke and Daniels, Dieter. 2012. ''Sounds Like Silence''. Hartware MedienKunstVerein. Leipzig: Spector Books. * Davies, Stephen. 1997. "John Cage's ''4′33″'': Is it music?" '' Australasian Journal of Philosophy'', vol. 75, no. 4, pp. 448–462. * Dodd, Julian. 2017. "What ''4′33″'' Is". * Garten, Joel. February 20, 2014
Interview With MoMA Curator David Platzker About the New Exhibition on John Cage.
''
The Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (''The Huffington Post'' until 2017, itself often abbreviated as ''HPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers p ...
''. * Katschthaler, Karl. 2016. "Absence, Presence and Potentiality: John Cage's ''4′33″'' Revisited", pp. 166–179. , in Wolf, Werner and Bernhart, Walter (eds.). ''Silence and Absence in Literature and Music''. Leiden: Brill. * Lipov, Anatoly. 2015. "4'33" as the Play of Silent Presence. Stillness, or Anarchy of Silence?" ''Culture and Art'', numbers 4, pp. 436–454, and 6, pp. 669–686, .


External links


What John Cage's silent symphony really means
, ''BBC News''
Radio 3 plays 'silent symphony'
, BBC Online. (includes RealAudio sound file)
A quiet night out with Cage
from the UK '' Observer''
The Music of Chance
from the UK '' Guardian'' newspaper
The Sounds of Silence
further commentary by Peter Gutmann

of a 2004 orchestral performance Audio

in
MIDI Musical Instrument Digital Interface (; MIDI) is an American-Japanese technical standard that describes a communication protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, ...
,
OGG Ogg is a digital multimedia container format designed to provide for efficient streaming and manipulation of digital multimedia. It is maintained by the Xiph.Org Foundation and is free and open, unrestricted by software patents. Its name is ...
, Au, and WAV formats.
John Cage's ''4′33″''
from
National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...
's "The 100 most important American musical works of the 20th century" ( RealAudio file format)
Interview with Kyle Gann about 4′33″ on The Next Track podcast
Apps

as an
iPhone The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...
app, published by the John Cage Trust (2014) {{DEFAULTSORT:4 33 Compositions by John Cage Durations Postmodern art Silence 1952 compositions