A Rendition of John Cage's 4'33"
Keep calm, and ...
Keep calm, and silence.
@omgwtfbbq6666 ...
@omgwtfbbq6666 Don't get me wrong, though- I'm neither under any illusion that I've accomplished anything interesting at all with this 'performance', nor that I've accomplished much that could truly be said to be remarkable with any other. But, eh, so goes it, right? 'Twas fun, nevertheless.
@omgwtfbbq6666 Yes, ...
@omgwtfbbq6666 Yes, yes, you're probably right. At least on one level, and if I ever perform it again (which I almost certainly wouldn't, unless Chris [M. Conga] was around), I'll keep that in mind. Still, if this is an adaptation less for a concert hall, and more for a folksy open mic at a coffee house, I'm not sure that's terribly relevant. Or, at least not relevant in quite the same way. "Which is more musical, a truck passing by a factory, or a truck passing by a music school?"
No but seriously, ...
No but seriously, this isn't how it's supposed to be played, you cannot move when your playing silent notes, so therefore, your hands should be at the rest position.
@ ...
@AndrewLargemanJones I'm tellin you man, it needs some bass, a little more timber and maybe a singer....your never gonna achieve platinum without......it
you got the balls! ...
you got the balls! :)
Super! I put your ...
Super! I put your video on the facebook page - JOHN CAGE'S 4'33'' FOR CHRISTMAS NUMBER ONE 2010
I like this song, ...
I like this song, but it got ripped off by John Lennon when he wrote the Nutopian International Anthem.
@ajuk1 But you ...
@ajuk1 But you didn't write or play this. John Cage wrote it and David Tudor gave the first performance. And why does it have to 'impress' you? The C major prelude from Book 1 of the Well-Tempered Clavier is dead simple, and so is 'Anarchy in the UK' by the Sex Pistols - hardly 'impressive' music, either of them, and both of them easy to play, but nobody else thought of writing them, and they're both totally brilliant.
In the spirit of ...
In the spirit of constructive criticism: for one thing, this piece is in three movements, and it helps if you do it in three movements because otherwise people forget that you're doing it at all. Also, since nobody knew what you were doing, there wasn't nearly enough build-up to it, so the audience wasn't concentrating properly, so it was as if you weren't performing anything but had just taken a break for a few minutes. Otherwise, nice performance.
Y'know, the sheet ...
Y'know, the sheet music to 4'33" is not very expensive.
FATALITY
FATALITY
And that, my ...
And that, my friend, is the whole point. All sound is music, according to Cage.
It's not supposed ...
It's not supposed to be true silence.
True silence is so ...
True silence is so hard to be found.
It's not supposed ...
It's not supposed to be difficult to play. It's pure simple art. the charm is in understanding its meaning.
I admit I could ...
I admit I could write a piece of classical music or play any instruments but I could write/play this so it just doesn't impress me.
i performed a ...
i performed a concert in ode to john cage at the national gallery in d.c. in honor of cage/cunningham/rauschenberg collaborations and it was wonderful. cats decided to walk out though. i a just happy the music evoked a reaction. if people hate it or love it i am happy; if people are apathetic, i am sad.
Excellent ...
Excellent suggestion. Next time we perform it, we will be sure to add cowbell performer to the mix.
needs more cowbell. ...
needs more cowbell.... i got a fever and the only prescription is more cowbell
Nice. I'm in a ...
Nice. I'm in a contemporary ensemble and we're performing this piece in May. We'll probably be doing it from the original score and in a different key than this one though ;)
This is the hot ...
This is the hot shit!
As 4' 33" is ...
As 4' 33" is designated to last that length of time, you would assume the same applies to 0'0" in which case we should all be constantly paying Cage royalties!
Ambient noise is ...
Ambient noise is there before and after the preset 4' 33" rendering Cage's "piece" non-existant. By that measure all sound is music, so we can dispense with musicians and composers. Sounds are the ingredients, they don't become music until someone cooks them. I suppose seeing the possible humour in this would depend on how much you paid for your ticket!
Frankly, I don't ...
Frankly, I don't care that much about Cage to know too much about his work. I was intrigued by the audacity of this piece and did as something of a joke. Later, I discovered that humor, pulling a prank on people, is very much a part of the fluxus art movement that John Cage had so much to do with. That's what I've grown to understand. That the more people who get pissed off about this piece, the more silly society is that ambient noise would actually offend them.