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April 05, 2009

all of 4'33" and more

You can buy four minutes and thirty three seconds of silence for £2.37. That’s just under a penny a second. John Cage’s seminal work 4’33” is on sale in the iTunes store. It comes in three separate movements which each cost £0.79. Mind you if the iTunes track timings are anything to go by you’re being sold short – you only get 4’31” of silence.

4'33'.jpg

The proper timings for the Tacet Edition is I: 0’33” II: 2’40” III:1’20” however Cage himself seemed to prefer the timings of the original Kremen Edition: I: 0’30” II: 2’23” III:1’40”

Originally composed for a piano, 1952, the piece instructs the pianist not to play anything, in three movements, for a total duration of 4’33”. In January 2004 a full orchestral version was performed in the Barbican Centre, London, by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Laurence Foster. It broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 and was simultaneously televised on BBC 4. Radio 3 engineers had to bypass their automatic systems that detect a silence, if for instance a programme has dropped off air.


Posted by john at April 5, 2009 10:13 AM

Comments

I was bored before two minutes were up. This version is "The sound of a concert hall with an audience but no orchestra". In my living room it would be different. I know that this is probably what John Cage intended but I still think it's King's New Clothes. It's good to have silence sometimes but I like to choose my own length of it, and my own place, and to have it without a full orchestra just seems pretentious and expensive!

Posted by: Daphne at April 5, 2009 10:25 PM

Ha Ha I sat through some thing similiar at the Opera House in Manchester when I went to see Matthew Barny,everyone clapped with gratitude of the experience.It was one of those moments when you think to yourself "Er Did I miss some thing there",I feel the same Daphne,exactly kings new clothes. On my "things to do" list,when time allows,I would like to learn to play the cello & play in a full orchestra,this could be my short cut to success ; )

Posted by: paula at April 7, 2009 10:46 AM