Saliente, Brad Maroi A.

February 4, 2019
BSBA-Economics Block 1 Art Appreciation

Essay About Jhon Cage (4'33)

The reason the piece is so widely discussed is certainly due in large part to John Cage's fame, but
that doesn't validate 4'33" as art; if it were the case that artistic validity rested solely upon notoriety, then
we might expect the many fine works composed by unknown composers over the centuries to have
metaphysically degenerated into drivel on the page simply by virtue of not having been heard very much
in all this time. The music (or lack thereof) is what it is regardless of popularity; it is our perception that
changes, not the music itself.

John Cage’s 4′33″ is one of the most misunderstood pieces of music ever written and yet, at times,
one of the avant-garde’s best understood as well. Many presume that the piece’s purpose was deliberate
provocation, an attempt to insult, or get a reaction from, the audience. For others, though, it was a logical
turning point to which other musical developments had inevitably led, and from which new ones would
spring. For many, it was a kind of artistic prayer, a bit of Zen performance theater that opened the ears and
allowed one to hear the world anew. To Cage it seemed, at least from what he wrote about it, to have been
an act of framing, of enclosing environmental and unintended sounds in a moment of attention in order to
open the mind to the fact that all sounds are music. It begged for a new approach to listening, perhaps even
a new understanding of music itself, a blurring of the conventional boundaries between art and life. But to
beg is not always to receive.

He dwelled on the abstract and explored the relationship between music and silence, even going as
far as to question established musical preconceptions. Cage was perhaps best known for his 1952 “silent”
piece, 4’33”.

4’33” is read four minutes and thirty-three seconds and is sometimes known simply as 433. It is a
piece that defies the conventions of classical music. When performed by a soloist, this composition sees the
performer take the seat at the piano but doing absolutely nothing with it.