On This Day!

[Joy]

On this day in 1952, 4'33", a piece by avant-garde composer John Cage in which the performer's silence elevated the incidental noise of the concert hall to the status of music, had its debut in New York.

A truly inovative albeit 'different' piece indeed.

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'Truth and beauty joined'

[Fidelio]

Originally posted by Joy:
On this day in 1952, 4'33", a piece by avant-garde composer John Cage in which the performer's silence elevated the incidental noise of the concert hall to the status of music, had its debut in New York.

A truly inovative albeit 'different' piece indeed.

A con indeed!!

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Must it be.....it must be

[Athea]

Pleased to hear it!

[PDG]

4'33" (lasts longer if the tempo is taken more slowly) is even less musical than the snap, crackle & pop of my morning cereal.

[Sorrano]

Originally posted by PDG:
4'33" (lasts longer if the tempo is taken more slowly) is even less musical than the snap, crackle & pop of my morning cereal.

But it's more interesting than watching paint dry on the wall.

[Peter]

Originally posted by Peter:
From Wikipedia:

"The realisation as he saw it of the impossibility of silence led to the composition of his most notorious piece, 4'33 However, Cage repeatedly claimed that he composed 4'33 in small units of silent rhythmic durations which, when summed, equalled the duration of the title--he further claimed that he might have made a mistake in addition. The theory that the title of the work refers to absolute zero 4'33 expressed in seconds is 273 seconds. Minus 273 degrees Celsius - the lowest temperature that can be obtained in any macroscopic system- is referred to as Absolute zero), however, continues as a kind of urban legend that no doubt will always remain attractive to certain people.

Another cited influence for this piece came from the field of the visual arts. Cage's friend and Black Mountain colleague, the artist Robert Rauschenberg, had, while working at the college, produced a series of white paintings. These were apparently blank canvases that, in fact, changed according to varying light conditions of the rooms in which they were hung, as well as the shadows of people in the room. These paintings inspired Cage to use a similar idea, using the 'silence' of the piece as an 'aural blank canvas' to reflect the dynamic flux of ambient sounds surrounding each performance.

The premiere of the three-movement 4'33 was given by David Tudor on August 29, 1952 as part of a recital of contemporary piano music. The audience saw him sit at the piano and lift the lid of the piano. Some time later, without having played any notes, he closed the lid. A while after that, again having played nothing, he lifted the lid. And after a further period of time, he closed the lid once more and rose from the piano. The piece had passed without a note being played and without Tudor having made any deliberate sound, although he timed the lengths on a stopwatch while turning the pages of the score. Only then could the audience recognize what Cage insisted upon, that ¡°There is no such thing as silence. Something is always happening that makes a sound." Richard Kostelanetz suggests that the very fact that Tudor, a man known for championing experimental music, was the performer, and that Cage, a man known for introducing unexpected non-musical noise into his work, was the composer, would have led the audience to expect unexpected sounds. Anybody listening intently would have heard them: while nobody produces sound deliberately, there will nonetheless be sounds in the concert hall (just as there were sounds in the anechoic chamber at Harvard). It is these sounds, unpredictable and unintentional, that are to be regarded as constituting the music in this piece. The piece remains controversial to this day, and is seen as challenging the very definition of music.

While it may challenge the definition of music, it does not challenge any definition of composition ¡ª the earliest score was written on conventional manuscript paper using graphic notation similar to that used in Music of Changes, with the three movements precisely scored to reflect their individual lengths. The most famous version of the score is the so-called Tacet edition, which features three movements all on one page, each labelled tacet ¡ª the traditional musical term for when a musician does not play for a movement. The score provides no time limits for any of the parts. Neither the whole piece nor the duration of the first performance were decided using chance operations. The piece can have any duration and thus any title, but is stuck with the famous first performance duration and title (i.e. movement I: 30";- movement II: 2'23" movement III: 1'40". Cage himself refers to it as his "silent piece" and writes; "I have spent many pleasant hours in the woods conducting performances of my silent piece... for an audience of myself, since they were much longer than the popular length which I have published. At one performance... the second movement was extremely dramatic, beginning with the sounds of a buck and a doe leaping up to within ten feet of my rocky podium." (in John Cage: Silence: Lectures and Writings).

It is a potential problem though if one wishes to regard the unpredictable sounds as constituting the music in this piece. This comes forward clearly in the recording made by the Amadinda Percussion Group, in which the group place themselves in a park. One hears birdsongs, of course, only interrupted twice due to the pauses following each part. If the sounds during the parts are the music, then the sounds between the parts are not, and then the Amadinda recording is true to its source. However, in a performance the listener would not be able to distinguish the parts in sounds, but only in the acts of the performer(s). In this respect Cage¡¯s silent pieces constitute theater more than sound."

[This message has been edited by Peter (edited 08-30-2006).]

[Fidelio]

What I could never understand is that a panel that reviewed the work after it was 'played' at the Barbican in January 2004, commented that it sounded different at rehearsal!

Please………


Fidelio

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Must it be.....it must be

[Joy]

Thanks everyone. Fidelio, that is so funny!

Peter, very interesting about the Absolute Zero theory and the white canvas effects with lighting. A true art form to say the least.

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'Truth and beauty joined'

[Athea]

Originally posted by Fidelio:
What I could never understand is that a panel that reviewed the work after it was 'played' at the Barbican in January 2004, commented that it sounded different at rehearsal!

Please………


Fidelio

?????? maybe they had buzzing in their ears and then the silence 'sounded' differently?????