John Cage, 4'33''

The Sounds of Silence

The American avant-garde philosopher, poet, painter, pioneer of aleatory and electronic music, and composer, John Cage, was not the first to invent a musical composition that contained not a single note. Before and after him, there were breakthrough composers who worked on silence as musical material. But undoubtedly, his work titled 4'33 '' is the one that has survived the longest. Furthermore, it is considered his masterpiece, and the most controversial, far surpassing other works that gave silence a leading role.

4'33 ''
The piece, 4 minutes and 33 seconds long – as it will have been noticed – was composed in 1952, It can be played by any instrument or set of instruments, although it was originally conceived to be performed on the piano. Despite its short extension, it is structured in three movements. His score only contains the Latin word "tacet" which is customary to use to indicate to the orchestra musician that his contribution is not required for a considerable period, for example, during a complete movement. In this case, tacet instructs the interpreter to remain silent for four minutes and thirty-three seconds.

John Cage (1912 - 1992)

The music "of the environment"
In Cage's own opinion this was his most important work and with it, he attempted to show that any sound or set of sounds can be music, if we agree. The four minutes and thirty-three seconds of silence are intended for the audience to listen to the sounds of the environment while the piece is "performed", sounds that neither the author nor the interpreter nor the audience is in a position to control, which, for true, is an irrefutable truth.

The various versions
There is an online version played on the piano, apparently by John Cage himself, but it is somewhat old and the video is a low-resolution one. The sound, moreover, is poor.
I've preferred to show here an orchestral version with soloist, which Cage devised a few years later due to the enthusiasm that the original piece aroused in the public, a project that meant some good years of work for the composer. As rarely before, at the end of the piece, the audience knew how to keep the overwhelming silence that the end of every musical manifestation requires.

To the benefits already described, 4'33 '' adds an unmatched feature: it can be heard both with and without headphones.