John Cage, 4'33": Theories of Sound and Silence
The Most Experimental Composition in Avant-Grade Classical Music
Sep 16, 2008
When John Cage wrote his controversial compositional piece 4'33" he was certainly aware that he was questioning one of culture's most ingrained assertions; when most people think of silence, they think of the state of being completely and utterly without sound.
That is exactly the thing Cage challenged when he composed a piece that could be played on “any instrument”; a piece with no musical notes – only tacets – that would highlight to the world that it was absence of silence, not absence of sound, that truly defined the limitations of music.
"The Material of Music is Sound and Silence. Integrating These Is Composing. I Have Nothing to Say, and I Am Saying It (John Cage: 4'33" by David Tudor)"
4'33" was first performed in 1952, by David Tudor. For the duration of the piece he sat motionlessly at a closed piano, opening it only when he wished to signify pauses between movements.
What was remarkable about the piece from its very first performance was that its perception as a composition of 'four minutes and thirty three seconds of silence' was in fact an indication of fundamental our inability to hear pure, absolute silence and the absence of sound; it highlighted the world of sounds around its audience, created randomly and organically, and without the control of the composer or performer.
Since its premiere the piece has been performed in a number of locations and on a wide range of instruments, and each performance has brought with it an entirely unique set of sounds; with all musical notions removed, Cage's piece is able to bring to the mind of the listener a true appreciation of ever present, natural sounds; in a room on one’s own, totally sound proofed, one can still hear the sounds of one’s own blood and one’s own heart beat, and - as Cage learned when he visited the anechoic sound chamber at Harvard – one can always hear the high pitched frequency of one’s own nervous system.
Sound is Everywhere, and the World is Never Silent.
Cage’s indication that 4’33” can be played on any instrument then, is mockery; the piece is played on all instruments, at all times, and those instruments – the producers of the sounds – need not be classically defined.
That Tudor’s premiere performance began with him simply closing the piano lid highlights that perfectly, and the fact that it was performed in a recital for modern piano compositions can only have been another ironic gesture from the man who wrote in his book Silence: Lectures and Writings that he “spent many pleasant hours in the woods conducting performances…[of the piece] for an audience of myself, since they were much longer than the popular length which I have published”.
It is a statement that highlights the foresight and genius of the piece within itself; 4’33” shows us the beauty and brilliance of sound, and its all encompassing importance; however hard we try, we cannot be rid of it. Sound is everywhere, and in the world of John Cage it need not be constrained to methods and formulas; it is free and unbounded, and that is what characterises its beauty.
"Sound that Doesn't Mean Anything; That is Not Inner, but Just Outer (John Cage: Ecoute)"
With a piece of sheet music containing simply three tacets, then, Cage redefined how human beings think of sound, silence, and composition. He noted the impossibility of silence - he highlighted it for a mass audience - and at the same time brought to the world an attention to the simple beauty of unorganised, unbounded sounds, present everywhere. The interesting thing about 4'33" is that there can be a performance of it going on at any time; all we have to do is think to listen to it.
Those performances will continue everywhere and every day, with different textures and different sounds and rhythms, and there is not a point at which that cycle will stop. Such is the enchanting genius of Cage’s piece, and a true testament to the importance of silence – or rather lack of it – in musical philosophy.
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