When you go to a recital what do you expect to hear? My best bet is you go to listen to music!
Imagine for a second that you are attending a concert by the performer David Tudor August 29th, 1952 in Woodstock New York. You are excited to hear the music of a renowned living composer- John Cage. You clap and you cheer in anticipation as David Tudor walks across the stage and sits at the piano. He then opens the sheet music and closes the piano’s lid. Next you watch as he grabs a stopwatch and begins the clock. Nothing else happens. You sit there, hardly daring to breathe in anticipation. You wonder to yourself when he will start playing. After a bit you lean over to whisper to your neighbor…surely Tudor will play something, anything!!! Do you get up and leave? Tudor waits for a while, stops the clock and then repeats the process for three whole movements. How would you feel? Would the experience be pleasant? Thought provoking? Angering? Memorable? These were all realities for the audience that witnessed John Cage’s 4’33.
Undoubtedly, this piece has been and will be discussed and disputed by musicians until the end of time. Anthony Hecht in a New York Times Article (Sept. 13 1992) describes 4’ 33” as “Conceptual art with a vengeance” and claiming it has a “physiological agenda.”
I don’t think Hecht is far off. In speaking about this piece Cage said “There is no such thing as an empty space or empty time. There is always something to see, something to hear. In fact, try as we may to make silence, we cannot. Sounds occur whether intended or not.” (Hecht) Of this piece the performer Tudor called it “one of the most intense listening experiences you can have.”
One of the beauties of the piece is that it is highly indeterminate in nature, meaning that no two performances of 4'33 will ever be the same. The whispers of the crowd, the shuffling anticipation, the occasional cough, the outside noise will always, always be entirely unique. This alone brings beauty and creativity into the listening experience.
If we can find beauty and music in the “silence” or perhaps better stated as the lack thereof, how much do we limit ourselves by putting expectations on music? If we would just open our ears to hear what is happening around us-each minuscule detail- if we really truly took the time to listen, what beautiful melodies would we begin to hear?
