John Cage: 4′33″
| [Music Link] | Click here |
| [Wikipedia Link] | Click here |
This near-legendary work consists of 3 movements of silence. If one thinks of music as a set of notes, then there isn’t much to 4′33″. However, from the point of view of OMS - which models music as organized stimuli - there is quite a lot of stimulation going on.
In 4′33″, stimulation is provided by: The expectation of sound; violated expectations of sound; ambient sound; performance circumstances; audience factors; and more. When we profile these stimuli via OMS, we get a composite score of 300 - very impressive! Here is a partial rundown (using abbreviated, evocative language) of some of the stimulation provided by 4′33″. This is just to convey to the reader that there is a lot of stimulation, of wide variety:
[a] “Philosophical” and “Mathematical”: Responses relating to time/timelessness, space/spatial, physical/non-physical,
created/pre-existent, human agency, structure, architecture, shape, the topology of time, …
[b] Emotional and semi-emotional: Anticipation, surprise, frustration, curiosity, tension, humor, wonder, …
[c] Reactions to ambient sound (air conditioner, coughs, street traffic, viral tune playing in my head, …)
[d] Audience factors: Group experience; “group-meditation”; heightened awareness of behavior of other audience members.
[e] Political: Awareness of possible roles/tasks/relationships of the composer, the performer, the members of the audience.
[f] Aesthetic: Most aesthetic receptors are aroused in one way or another.
These kinds of stimuli/responses are “legit” - they occur commonly in conventional music. 4′33″ delivers some of the above in a stronger, richer way than in most conventional music.
Is 4′33″ a fraud? It doesn’t look like one, analyzed in the above way.
However, there are a couple of odd aspects to the work: First, 4′33″ seems to be a work which now and forever will be in a class of its own - there does not seem to be room for there to be a second work of its kind. Second, there is the appearance that it was ridiculously easy to create - although the same could be said of many great photographs …
Some people are deeply affected at a live performance of 4′33″ - watch the video linked above. An interesting video for comparison is this silent preparation for the beginning of Ravel’s Bolero (Herbert von Karajan conducting).