I first came across 4'33" last October when I played with the Berkshire Symphony at Williams College. On the day of the concert, I heard a last-minute rumor that we would be playing this piece. I was confused at first, since we never actually rehearsed this. When I heard what 4'33" actually entailed, I was intrigued by the idea of performing a piece without having to play any notes. What confuses me is why anyone would want to purchase such a musical score that only consists of a title and blank measures.
What was surprisingly difficult about 4'33" was keeping a straight face for that entire duration in dead silence. As I glanced across the room, I noticed that several of the orchestral members were twitching and struggling to maintain an unamused facial expression. I also had a hard time withholding my amusement, and at one point, I thought I was going to succumb to laughter. Even the conductor looked like he was going to crack up. After the four minutes and thirty-three seconds passed, we breathed a sigh of relief, as the audience let out chuckles during the applause. To this day, I remember 4'33" as the most interesting, and in a sense, the most challenging piece of music I have ever "played."
What was surprisingly difficult about 4'33" was keeping a straight face for that entire duration in dead silence. As I glanced across the room, I noticed that several of the orchestral members were twitching and struggling to maintain an unamused facial expression. I also had a hard time withholding my amusement, and at one point, I thought I was going to succumb to laughter. Even the conductor looked like he was going to crack up. After the four minutes and thirty-three seconds passed, we breathed a sigh of relief, as the audience let out chuckles during the applause. To this day, I remember 4'33" as the most interesting, and in a sense, the most challenging piece of music I have ever "played."
John Cage, an interesting man.
http://www.brainpickings.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/cage.png
I have heard of this piece before and have never really understood its significance. It always seemed like a very lazy piece that managed to be pretentious at the same time. It seemed to me like he just wanted to write a song without actually having to do the work of writing a song and still call it a significant and experimental piece of art.
ReplyDeleteHowever, after reading your reflection on it, I do understand the piece a little more and can see how John Cage could have very sincerely wrote this piece as a way to hear the beauty of silence. I feel like this piece would be most affective at an outdoor venue, where once the band is quiet the audience would be able to hear all of little noises that they hear everyday, but fail to fully recognize, like the sound of airplanes or nearby bugs or other animals.
When I first read this I thought that you did nothing for 4 minutes and 33 seconds and then play but the whole song is just silence. I wouldn't have minded this when I was in orchestra. It must have taken John Cage forever to edit and fine tune this unusual piece
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