Well, I probably shouldn't comment without score in hand...maybe I'm misremembering. Mark C may be right in that no sub-durations are given, but David Tudor performed the work as a three-movement work with the keyboard lid closed, then opened, as delineation points for the movements.

Google search says there have been more than one set of time subdivisions to mark off the movements, and they are quite specific. But then again, if there are no definite markings in the score, then they must be optional.

There are definitely no "sub-durations."
But as I said, the score that I have indicates 3 "movements."


.....which was evidently how he chose to observe the indicated movements.

Thanks, Mark.

From the Wikipedia:
4′33″ (pronounced "Four minutes, thirty-three seconds"[1]) is a three-movement composition[2][3] by American experimental composer John Cage (1912–1992). It was composed in 1952 for any instrument (or combination of instruments), and the score instructs the performer not to play the instrument during the entire duration of the piece throughout the three movements (which, for the first performance, were divided into thirty seconds for the first, two minutes and twenty-three seconds for the second, and one minute and forty seconds for the third).

(I assume that was David Tudor.)

I agree with those durations.

Most 3-movement pieces have the 1st movement relatively longer and the 2nd movement shorter. I agree that for this, those relative lengths are better.

BTW when I did the piece, in fact I also did "actions" marking the movements, as per what RealPlayer said. But IMO it's not indicated or implied that you have to.

Which instrument do you prefer for a performance of this great seminal work?

I know we're all pianists here, but I have a soft spot for the versions for snare drum and ukelele. The piano version, in comparison, sounds rather insipid.

, did you see the Hitler diatribe on YT? For reasons that will be readily apparent, it will NOT be linked here.

Adolf almost said something sensible there.....