The Story of 4'33''

the story of

‘4’33’’

M u s i c i a n J o h n C a g e ’s challenge to the listener

the story of

‘4’33’’ A DA P T E D F R O M A N N P R

B R OA D C A S T BY W I L L H E R M E S

I t’ s a w a r m a n d rainy evening in August of 1952.

The place is a tiny auditorium, appropriately called the Maverick Concert Hall. Built in the early part of the century by an eccentric poet and novelist named Herve White, the building is at the end of a dirt road in the middle of the forest near Woodstock, New York, an artists’ community about two hours north of New York City.

The Maverick is a lopsided plank-andnail affair that seems a cross between a barn and a country church. The support beams are stripped logs. On one side, a huge oak tree grows through an opening in the moss-covered roof. The doorways are set at odd angles and

W I N D OW PA N E S are scattered across

WHITEWAS HE D WA L L S like dominoes.

In the audience is a broad cross-

music renegades, and composer

section of the city’s classical musical

John Cage, who’s premiering two

community, including composers

new works. For the first, which would

like Morton Feldman and Earl Brown,

later become known as “Water Music,”

whose works are being performed

pianist David Tudor, a lifelong Cage

this particular night. Also present are

collaborator, plays prepared piano, a

some vacationing members of the

duck call and a transistor radio. For the

New York Philharmonic, looking to keep up with the antics of the new

second, the provisionally entitled “Four Pieces,”

Tu d o r s t a r t s a S T OP WAT C H , sits down at the piano,

closes the lid

&

begins

A P E R F O R M A NC E IN WHICH

HE NEVER P L AY S A NO T E .

after 30 seconds o f s i l e n c e , Tu d o r r e s e t s

the stopwatch

another two minutes, 23 and times

seconds of silence then another minute

40 seconds

of silence

but is it s i l ence?

in the maverick that night, one could most l i ke l y h e a r :

2.

3.

4.

1.

the sound of the breeze in the trees

rain pattering lightly on the rooftop the chirping of crickets

a dog bark ing aimlessly somwhere in the distance

THE SOUND of bodies S H I F T I NG their weight on C R E A K Y P I N E B E NC H E S

THE SOUND of breath B E I NG D R AW N and being EXPIR ED

This was music for John Cage.

And unlike compositions designed to make the outside world fall away, here was a music that, when it engaged you, made the present world open up like a lotus blossoming in stop-motion photography.

It was all very much in keeping with Cage’s Zen worldview, which emphasized the power of unmediated experience and direct perception of what Cage called:

T HE

“ i s n e s s ”of

LIFE

The silent composition, which became known by its duration of four minutes and 33 seconds, was influenced by Cage’s encounter with the so-called “white paintings” by his friend Robert Rauschenberg—

H U G E C A N VA S S E S of undifferentiated

WHITE

whose

surfaces var y

I N F I N I T E LY with particles

o f D US T

and light ref lections He was also influenced by an encounter with an anechoic chamber, a room scientifically designed to maintain absolute silence for various types of acoustic testing.

In his famous collection of essays titled Silence, Cage wrote about entering such a chamber at Harvard and hearing two sounds, one high and one low. The engineer of duty informed him that the high-pitched sound was that of his nervous system, the low one that of his blood in circulation. It spurred an epiphany for Cage, one that would focus much of his musical attention on ambient and accidental sounds as opposed to willful, compositional ones.

until I die,

there will be s ound s

he wrote, “and they will continue after my death. One need not fear about the future of music.

Any sounds may occur in any combination and in any continuity.”

As one might expect, many listeners found this view unpalatable, despite the fact that the hall itself could be a metaphor for Cage’s ideal union of music and nature. There was an uproar. People thought 4’33” was a joke or some kind of avant-garde nose-thumbing. During a post-concert discussion, as Cage biographer David Revill notes, one local artist stood up and suggested,

“good people of WO O D S TO C K ,

l e t’s

DR IVE these people

OUT OF

TOWN! ”

But, in fact, Cage’s little silent composition was no joke and it would have an incalculable, if characteristically quiet, influence on a great deal of music that came after.

the emerging technology of portable recorders permitted

the

cataloging and

M A N I PU L AT I O N

o f environmental

sounds by

M US I C I A N S

the sound

of the

OCEAN

was as central to

the

W H O ’s

QUA DROPH E N I A

A S Pe t e To w n s h e n d ’ s

T H R A SH I N G G U I TA R

composer Steve Reich explored the

RY T H Y M

of the H U M A N VO I C E and trains

Brian Eno, who credits Cage with inspiring him to become a composer, recorded a series of so-called “ambient” albums, music of a quietude,

DE S I G N E D

to COMPLIMENT rat her t han

COMPETE

w it h t he sounds

o f life

t o d ay

H I P - H OP P RO D U C E R S

use street noise

i n T H E I R M US I C A L FA B R I C

a n d DJ ’s VINYL L Psurface to

communicate

N O S TA L G I A and

AU T H E N T I C I T Y

In a sense, Cage gave musicians aesthetic permission, spiritual encouragement even, to go beyond the tonalities of standard instrumentation and engage with the infinite possibilities of sound. While he composed prolifically until his death in 1992 at the age of 79,

CAGE

remained more

WELL-K NOW N

for his

than his

I DE A S

MUS I C

‘4’33’’ &

U LT I M AT E E X PR E S S I O N o f t h e s e I DE A S is the

“The most important piece

is my SILENT

p i e c e ,”

he affirmed. “I always think of it before I write the next piece.” One critic called it “the pivotal composition of this century.” Pianist David Tudor called it “one of the most intense listening experiences you can have.” But all this puts a weightiness on 4’33” that seems at odds with its playful sense of simply being allied to the

“I’ve

world. As Cage writes at the end of his Silence,

spent many

PLE ASANT HOUR S in the

WOODS

C O N D U C T I NG P E R F O R M A NC E S of my

S I L E N T p i e c e ,”

TR ANSRIPTIONS

that is, for an

AU D I E NC E o f M Y S E L F.

BY I N V I T I N G U S TO D O T H E SA M E , CAG E T R A N S F OR M E D T H E A RT OF M U S I C , A N D T H E A RT O F LI ST E N I N G , I R R E VO CA BLY.

the story of

‘4’33’’ John Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer, music theorist, artist, and philosopher. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electro-acoustic music, and nonstandard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde.

Cage is perhaps most infamous for his piece ‘4’33’’’, an experimental piece that invites the listener to question where life ends and music begins. This book tells the story of this piece and ultimately, John Cage’s legacy.