4' 33'' by John Cage:
a modern piece of music in 3 movements
If you haven't heard this piece of avant-garde classical music before, I suggest you start off by watching the video. Below that is a table of contents which will help you to find the information in the rest of this lens about the musical piece to which you have just listened. Trust me ... I don't want to spoil the moment for you by telling you about it before you listen. As the composer said at the première,
“ Good people of Woodstock, let's run these people out of town. „
Key Facts
◊ 4'33'' by the American composer John Milton Cage Jr
◊ Premièred at Woodstock in 1952 on a single piano
◊ Video of performance in this lens is with full orchestra
◊ The title of 4'33'' reflects its length of 4min 33sec
◊ It was referred to be the composer as 4-33
◊ Cage wrote a sequel called 0'00''
See the "About 4'33'' & John Cage" section
for more information.
Table of Contents
Performance
So what do you think?
About 4' 33'' & John Cage
Vinyl or CD?
Guestbook
So what do you think?
Opinion is usually very divided on this piece. It's certainly a cult classic and I've always been captivated by it. Other people I know just think it's plain silly. So what do you think, brilliant or nonsense? The audience at the première didn't much appreciate it. Cage said of their reaction:
“ They missed the point. There's no such thing as silence. What they thought was silence, because they didn't know how to listen, was full of accidental sounds. You could hear the wind stirring outside during the first movement. During the second, raindrops began patterning the roof, and during the third the people themselves made all kinds of interesting sounds as they talked or walked out.
„
Vinyl or CD?
For years the big debate in audiophile and hi-fi magazines was viynl or CD: analogue or digital? I first heard 4' 3" at school. It was played to us on a vinyl record. It's one piece I definitley prefer on vinyl as it has so much more atmosphere than on a clinical CD. Of course, a live performance is better still but I've not been to a concert were it has been performed. And "performed", I think, is the right verb for this piece, rather than played.
All of his music I have listened to is avant-garde, but usually there is sound, You might be interested in some CDs of it.
Please sign my guestbook
Whether you like 4'33'' or hate it, I hope you have found this lens interesting. I'd ♥ love ♥ for you to please sign my guestbook. 
I'd also be very grateful if you took the time to rate my lens. To go back to the top of my page just click home on the right. Thank you,
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JoanTheChoirLady
Oct 27, 2011 @ 5:14 pm | delete
- I love the idea of the piece. I'll have to come back in a little while to check out the video again, because I started it while the washing machine was running and I'd like to try again to have something closer to the concert hall experience. Thanks for this lens!
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drifter0658
Mar 19, 2009 @ 10:13 pm | delete
- A wonderful experience. I had never heard of this and I was pleased. I used to laugh at Picasso and his 'fractured simplicity' or Dali and the 'melted clocks', but no more. I understand them now, still don't like them much, but I respect the works.
John Cage's work here is different. I liked the silence. Admittedly, it was hard to sit here in this room through the entire piece, but I endured the roar of silence.
Most likely, those who find the piece silly are those who are afraid of their own music when that's all that can be heard.
Cage's thoughts on traffic vs. composed music was dead on.
Thanks!
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ilovemusic
Mar 19, 2009 @ 7:10 pm | delete
- Thank you for this excellent lens on 4' 33'' by John Cage. 5 stars! We really need more Squidoo lenses on individual works of music. BTW, thanks for linking to my lens at http://www.squidoo.com/cage - I have also linked to your lens.
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