This piece is written out but intended not to be played by the pianist. The performer counts out the bars, turns the pages in the music and sits in complete silence for the whole duration of the work (four minutes and thirty-three seconds).
Since it's silent, is it truly music in your opinion?
2007-02-08 03:19:42 · 11 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities ➔ Performing Arts
Yes, but I disagree with all the previous "yes" answers. No offense.
If you listened to a recording of Cage's "4:33", what would you hear? If you said silence, you're wrong. Early recordings would have contained crowd noise, murmurs, and even shouting. I think Cage used the piano as a conductor, and the AUDIENCE as an instrument.
I guess you could argue whether audience noise in "4:33" is music. In most cases you can hear it. You can buy a copy of the written sheet music--I've seen it! It sounds like music to me.
2007-02-08 16:55:20 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
4:33 is certainly music - just not a music that we are used to hearing. Cage's point was that there is music in many things around us.
The first performance of 4:33 was an incredible event. A storm happened by at just the right moment to add the sounds of nature to the human sounds in the room. From some accounts is was a moving experience to those willing to accept a very different concept.
The power of 4:33 is that the performance changes enormously from venue to venue. It forces an audience to deal with listening to something not over-amplified and tuned just to blast out their senses.
Traditional music? Certainly not. But if the sounds of a river flowing have ever seemed like music to you, or you've considered how the percussive sounds of a person walking remind you of a drum solo you can see how 4:33 could fit in.
Incidentally, I don't think the original score mentions specifically which instrument it is to be "played" on. To my knowledge, however, it has only been give major performances by a pianist.
2007-02-09 00:32:32 · answer #2 · answered by Thrill Shakespeare 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Yes, it is music. And the purpose is not for silence.
It is measured time. Technically music is organized sound in relation to time. The purpose of this piece is to be able to focus solely on audience noise and response. It's amazing how many people simply HAVE to cough, shuffle their feet, check their watches, etc. during performances. Each performance is different, but that does not make it any less music.
AND, to account for previous answers, to say that it isn't music is totally ignorant. I'm a huge Bjork fan, and I can remember my mother telling me there was no melody....well there is, it just cycles over a much larger period of time than most people can comprehend. Until you have STUDIED music by Cage and his contemporaries, you cannot truly give an opinion. I think Cage was a genius, and not only produced music, but put an intellectual spin on it, and made it art. Nowhere, in any definition of music, does it say that it needs to be beautiful or make you feel anything.
2007-02-08 09:33:13 · answer #3 · answered by lovebluenfluff 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
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2014-09-21 12:44:12 · answer #4 · answered by ? 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Of course its music. 4:33 organizes a series of events in terms of musical notation. Liking the thing or not liking it has nothing to do with the definition of what it is. An anology, an 8'X8' painting hangs in a gallery. The canvas is all black. Is it a painting?
The best response to 4:33 came from Igor Stravinsky, who, when he was told about the piece and that there was no sound produced, sniped "I look forward to longer pieces by this composer."
2007-02-08 05:36:03 · answer #5 · answered by fredrick z 5 · 2⤊ 2⤋
I personally don't believe it's music. I know part of the point of it is that the ambient sounds are the music as well, but no. In my opinion, music includes purposeful tones in addition to meter.
If you're asking for a personal opinion, no. If you're asking technically, then yes, I suppose it is, as the definition of music is the arrangement of sounds in time.
2007-02-08 14:23:54 · answer #6 · answered by aeshamali 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
The true definition of "music" is "an organization of sounds in time. Although the sounds of 4'33" is not organized, it is, indeed music. Modern music has gone beyond the boundries of tonality and explored areas that some might find insane, but at what other time in your life will you ever truely pay attention to the sounds of an uncomfortable silence? When would you notice what the white noise in a room really is? Open your minds, and hear the music of everyday life.
2007-02-08 05:18:04 · answer #7 · answered by Meridith 2 · 2⤊ 2⤋
No, I have had to play many of these "pieces" for modern "composers" and they aren't music. I can think of some four letter words for them though. One piece that we did told us all to pick any note or group of notes and play them in any rhythm we wanted. Needless to say it sounds like @@@@. I'm sorry, it makes me kind of hostile. If I could avoid getting fired... I'd chuck my violin at Cage and call it music when he screamed. I would call it " Scream of a Moron"
2007-02-08 05:02:26 · answer #8 · answered by Mike V 4 · 2⤊ 2⤋
No. In my opinion, very little of John Cage's work qualifies as music. He was an experimenter with sound, but in order for the results to be "music", it ought to be stirring, or pleasing, or uplifting, or beautiful, or SOMETHING. 'Tisn't.
2007-02-08 03:27:24 · answer #9 · answered by MOM KNOWS EVERYTHING 7 · 2⤊ 2⤋
No, it's not Music. It's crap. It's nothing.
2007-02-08 03:52:12 · answer #10 · answered by Barbara V 4 · 2⤊ 1⤋