He really screwed up with the original recording though. I can hear pages turning, chairs squeaking, musicians coughing, and at 2:31 in he rips a fart.
4'33' may not be music, but it IS, in context, a brilliant piece of visual performance art. That's its box.
It's a joke on one level about what art is, and on a deeper level, it's a statement about silences in music, being and non-being, the place BEYOND music, that bypasses the Pied Piper that music is, and gets to paradox and resolution. It's even about meditation in a modern world. And we project onto silences.
Agreed. I would add that it is also about all of the ambient sounds that are present during our musical listening experiences.
However, I do stand by what I said about the far-reaching continuation of that school of thought which is carried on today by the artists I mentioned (Eno, etc.). Call it an affection for the avantgarde, or affection for winding people up (who knows?--I wasn't there in 1952)--a little bit of a conceptual shake up can occasionally be a good thing.
Early 1950s was a good time for 'do-nothing' artists, not just musicians....
Robert Rauschenberg’s White Paintings (1951) consists of a different number of modular panels—there are one-, two-, three-, four-, and seven-panel iterations—that have been painted completely white. In each case, Rauschenberg’s primary aim was to create a painting that looked untouched by human hands, as though it had simply arrived in the world fully formed and absolutely pure. Considered shocking and even characterized as a cheap swindle when they were first exhibited publicly in 1953, the White Paintings have gradually secured a place in art history as important precursors of Minimalism and Conceptualism. Among the most radical aspects of the series is that these works were conceived as remakeable: Rauschenberg viewed them primarily as a concept and allowed for the physical artworks to be repainted and even refabricated from scratch without his direct involvement. https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/98.308.A-C
Sounds like a landlord who wants you to paint your apartment and like it....I recall a certain Tom Sawyer who recruited others to do his fence white washing.
Apparently he wasnt the first in the history of white painting artists.
1) Prior to discovering the i ching and deciding to have it dictate compositional choices, he composed some fantastic keyboard music in the 30s and 40s. There is a wonderful 2 lp set by pianist Jeanne Kirstein playing Cage's music for piano, prepared piano, and toy piano. Eventually it was released on CD. The music is at turns dark, anxious, joyous, even regal at times. The Suite For Toy Piano is amazing; I've heard numerous recordings but none top Kirstein's.
2) Yes, as said before, the silent piece is all about what you hear and even what you think during the duration. I don't think it's music, but it is a great concept. David Raksin once was giving a lecture and played 433 for about 30 seconds and then joked that it was just an excerpt.
3) Another great concept piece by Cage is Imaginary Landscape #4 for 12 Radios and 24 Players. I saw this performed a few years ago as conducted by David Robertson. Each radio had a dial and specific instructions were notated on when to turn the dial and how much. So, a random mash of whatever happened to be playing at the time. While watching and listening to this it occurred to me that this piece would never be dated. When it was written in 1951 a the audience would hear big band music, radio dramas, etc. Now it would hear something else completely different. Maybe not music, but at least it's fresh whenever you hear it, unlike a lot of "serious" music from 1951.
4) I met John Cage in 1974. He was in St. Louis for a week giving various performances leading up to a performance of the Merce Cunningham dance group at Keil Opera House. So Cage hauled his electronic machinery to a community college and accompanied the dancers while they ran around a gymnasium. Next he gave a concert performance at the Maryland Plaza Screening Room, which was essentially an upscale bar that showed movies. Cage, David Tudor, and a third guy sat behind a bank of electronics for a couple of hours and played God knows what. At the main performance at Keil Opera House the first half of the program was all electronic music, but the program stated that in the second half Cage ould play piano. During intermission I ambled down to the orchestra pit and said, "Hi Mr. Cage, I see you're going to play piano on this nwext piece." He said, no, not play the piano, but play the things on the piano. And then he picked up various percussion instruments and shook, rattled them, whatever. He was certainly one of the great eccentrics.
