4'33'' composed by John Cage performed by David Tudor (1952)

This was piece is Cage's favorite yet most controversial works.. Composed in 1952 exactly at the midpoint of his 80-year life of discovery and culminated his exploration indeterminacy. In 1951 Cage was inspired to create a musical composistion from seeing the completely white empty paintings freshly done by his friend and also very famous artists Robert Raushenberg. Cage fully worksadmired these. "I responded Immediately" he said, "not as objects, but as ways of seeing. I've said it before that they are airports for shadows and dust, but you could also say that they are mirrors of the air". "When I saw those i said 'Oh yes, I must; otherwise I'm lagging, otherwise music is lagging" H e felt that Raushenberg's paintings gave him "permission" to proceed with the composistion of the "silent piece".

Although often described as a silent piece, 4'33'' isnt that at all. While there performer may be soundless, you soon become aware of a huge amount of sound, ranging from the mundane to the profound, from the expected to the surprising, from the intimate to the cosmic-nervous giggling,shifting in seats,breathing,air conditioning, a creaking door, passing traffic, an airplane, ringing in your ears, a recaptured memory, Concerts and records standardize our responsies, but no two people will ever hear 4'33'' the same way. This is deeply personal art, which each witness shapes to his or her own reactions to life. Its the ulltimate sing along you could say. The audience and the world at large becomes the performer.

Now alot of Cages work was controversial for whether it was music. Is 4'33'' considered music? I'd say of course it is. Each sound produced has a distinct tone,duration and timbre. As far as the standard architecture of a typical song or structure of any rythym throughout the song well i believe its all determined by the listener. The listener could either be in a hightened, nervous, frantic set of mind durring the piece therefore percieving the rythym as "fast tempoed". On the other hand for a easy going, calm, and comfortable listener the tempo could be translated into a light, melodic, and peaceful tempo. This was John Cage's intention for creating this wonderful work, because the listener becomes the true composer and hears what he/she individually expieriences just by chance. Every set of ears hears a unique and different song song and no two people share the same exact expierience. I would consider it a phsycological music materpiece.

Another step toward this asethetic was taken with Cage's dictum that art and life should no longer be seperate,but one and the same "Art is not an escape from life, but rather an introduction to it" He said that "it is time to turn the enviroment into art" This led to his interpenetration. According to Cage, music could no longer be considered new or "expierimental" unless it incorperated interpenetration . Previously sounds that were outside the composers intentions were considered alien intrusions, or unwelcomed noises. But works that welcome and include sounds outside of the composers and performers intentions are those that include interpenetration. This concept was first introduced by Erik Satie in his musique d'ambelement, or "furniture music" and was later taken up by Muzak. 4'33'' is the ultimate example of interpenetration.

Cage attributed even ecological reference to 4'33''. "We as humans species, have endangered nature. We acted against it, we have rebelled against its existence. So our concern today must be to reconstitute it for what it is. And nature is not a seperation of water from air, or the sky from the earth etc...but a "working together, or a "playing together" of those elements. That is what we call ecology. Music as I conceive it is ecological. You could go further and say that music is ecological. There is just no otherwork out there like 4'33'' that masters the idea of life and art all into one musical translation. It is music that attempts to express nothing and to communicate nothing and yet expresses and communicates everything. Just simply beautiful!