Description
For all its apparent simplicity John Cage''s seminal 4''33'''' (''Four, Thirty-Three'') continues to stimulate, provoke, enrage and delight audiences nearly 70 years after it was composed. The premiere of the three-movement 4''33'''' was given by David Tudor on August 29, 1952, at Woodstock, New York as part of a recital of contemporary piano music. The audience saw him sit at the piano and, to mark the beginning of the piece, close the keyboard lid. Some time later he opened it briefly, to mark the end of the first movement. This process was repeated for the second and third movements. The piece had passed without a note being played--in fact without Tudor (or anyone else) having made any deliberate sound as part of the piece. Tudor timed the three movements with a stopwatch while turning the pages of the score.
They missed the point. There''s no such thing as silence. What they thought was silence, because they didn''t know how to listen, was full of acc
