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Just curious about this Cage song, if anyone's ever heard it performed or recorded or anything, the question I have is how exactly does the "pianist" measure this 4'33, does he sit there with a stop watch or does he beat the time in his head or is 4'33 a general reference to give or take 5 minutes?

I hate hearing that piece because I can never get it out of my head

But seriously, violinist Yehudi Menuhin did a TV series called The Music of Man years ago. In one episode they showed a minute or two of Cage performing this work outdoors in an informal street environment. The audience was supposed to experience the piece by listening to all the background noise (cars, etc). Cage had a stopwatch sitting on top of the piano.

If I want to hear backround noise I go for a walk not a concert

I think in general you're supposed to use a stopwatch.

I've never seen this POS (just my opinion)performed, but I did see a similar piece while I was at college. It amounted to a Horn player sitting on stage not playing anything while there was some background noise (people opening and closing the various doors of the concert hall). This one was only marginally better than 4'33...

Actually it is supposed to be exactly 4 minutes and 33 seconds. It is supposed to represent absolute zero, or -273 degrees Celsius. 4'33 works out to 273 seconds.

I can play 4'33 of silence better than anybody!

Fun exercise for music students:

Transcribe 4'33 for any solo instrument or chamber ensemble of your choosing. Extra credit if you arrange it for an orchestra or marching band.

I've always seen it performed with a stopwatch.

Yes, and IIRC there are divisions of the piece into three sections which the pianist is to delineate in some way. David Tudor used to silently close and open the fallboard.

Does anyone have the sheet music? I mean, perhaps it has some directions or something?

Ohh, that is surprisingly stupid.

so, do you end the piece by making noise?

I've seen the sheet music. It has three movements each marked "TACET".

call his 4'33 music is nonsense, because afterall it is no music.

what is music?

i assume music is not noise produced, say, on streets, talking or banging on tables/doors, explosions or any that kind. if you call every sound is music, including noise, then we can all call ourselves composers (like Cage), because we can write just as well as Cage with our 5'33 or 1'33 or whatever. come on, that's nonsense!

I don't think you answered my question.

Anyway, I often see things that some people never would see as music, as music. Take Keith Jarrett, who during his long improvisations for solo piano sometimes gets up and starts banging with his hands basically everywhere on the piano except for where the tangents are. Usually, there's no rhythm in this, nothing "musical". Is it music? If no, why not? Does it mean that when he's sitting at the piano and playing, he's actually making music, but at the moment he starts banging it, he stops making music? Where do you draw the line? When does it cede to be music?
I once heard a band which had "transcribed" a phone call. Yes, that's right - a phone call! The drummer played the rhythm of the speech, the pianist played the notes closest to the ones which he person spoke etc... is that music? Can a phone call be called music?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Messiaen do music which imitated birdsong? I'm not sure, but I think you can agree with me that what Messiaen did can be considered as music. If so, isn't the birdsong he imitated also music?

OKay, back to 4'33 and silence... Consider this, which is one of my favourite quotes by Keith Jarrett: "Silence is the potential for music to arise". He's absolutely right. I think that John Cage represents this. Another quote:

"Silence is a much more important thing than anybodys music. I believe there are times when people must just... shut up! Of course you can't always shut up when you should, bet we're at a time when we need either for someone to say something very important or for someone to say nothing - and in that sense be very important. That's one thing John Cage was representing. Your expectations would always be shattered. To me that can have a more positive influence on a future musician than a lot of music. The musician has to transcend a state of inaction and go into action... Cage's music was always about what that means, what the action is, what the music is. It's very important that somebody is representing that."


If Cage's 4´33 ISN'T music, why can you find it on sheet MUSIC?

People who don't get 4'33" have a very shallow understanding of the arts and the important role that experimentation plays in keeping the arts alive and growing.

I second that.

Nice