4' 33"

"I didn't wish it to appear, even to me, as something easy to do or as a joke. I wanted to mean it utterly and be able to live with it." John Cage on 4'33"

In 1952, the pianist David Tudor gave the first public performance of John Cage's work 4'33". During the piece the artist plays nothing, although Tudor closed and opened the piano lid to delineate the three movements.

As silence plays a part of music, it seems, in retrospect, almost obvious to have a piece that consists only of silence but there is more to it than that. Already using stretches of silence within his compositions, Cage had visited an anechoic chamber, where all sounds are absorbed (and not reflected) by the walls. He had expected to hear silence - or not hear anything, if you prefer - but instead he heard the sounds of his body.

He realise that silence was unachievable, that there is always sound. And so to 4'33", where the audience is led to focus entirely on the sounds of the environment that they are in. Cage said it was his most important work and, for what it's worth, I think that is true.

Today, through the post, I received a boxed set from Mute Records containing five CDs of their artists, past and present, 'performing' 4'33". In fact, I'm listening to it as I write. It's called STUMM433 and there are 58 recordings of non-silence.

I get that some people will think this is a nonsense. But it means something to me. I might even record a version myself.

****
-11.5 kgs
Reading: 'The Testaments' by Margaret Atwood