John Cage's 4'33"

[madscout96]

I was looking at corpsreps.com and on a whim decided to a composer search of John Cage. What I found was that the Senators (of the UK?) performed 4'33" in 2003. (?????????)

Is there anyone here who actually saw this??? What on earth did they do???

For anyone who doesn't know, John Cage was a very weird composer who died in 1991 or around that time. He composed strange pieces of "music" like where the performer is supposed to set the piano on fire and let it burn, and then the sounds of the piano burning becomes the "music". He also wrote a concerto for 4 boomboxes or something like that.

4'33" is a piece for "piano" where the performer sits at the piano for 4 minutes and 33 seconds and doesn't play a single note. The "music" (in Cage's mind) is suppsed to be the sounds of the audience reacting to what they're seeing.

Dude was f***ed up.

[dckid80]

It would be a perfect piece for the Scouts... ^0^

[Jimisback]

That would be easy to do, just go on the field and.....................that is it.

WOW no ticks.

[Michael Boo]

Dude was f***ed up.

I knew John Cage for a brief time and was sort of a minor penpal after playing in one of his concerts. (Have a personal copy he sent of his macrobiotic cookbook.) The man was brilliant and got us to think about music is unexpected ways. What he did he did before anyone else. His grounding in music was quite traditional and his earlier rhythmic works for percussion remain standards on recitals around the world.

I suggest getting ahold of the available Naxos CDs of his studies for prepared piano. There's an elegance and simplicity in the works that is mesmerizing if one allows their brain to open up to the possibilities that exist outside one's own narrow background. You've got to open yourself up to such music if you have any chance of understanding and appreciating it.

He was a fascinating speaker and brought many innovations to the world of music. Some of his pieces were meant to outrage because they were meant to get people to think, to expand their minds (without drugs) and to notice the existence of sound around them.

He was NOT "f***ed up."

Mike

[monoemono]

People always point to that piece (the 4'33'') to say that Cage sucked, but he did about a bajillion other things.

It's like saying that Dali sucked because he put a lobster on a naked girl's head and called it art. It misses the larger picture.

Having said that, I do share the original poster's curiosity. What the #### did they do for that piece?

Edited October 22, 2005 by monoemono

[Einstein On The Beach]

Anyone who says Cage's concept with 4'33" "sucks" is probably ignorant and/or closed minded anyway. Many young students tend to say that about most 20th century composers (Cage, Schoenberg, etc) which isn't exactly fair. No one has to like everything, but just saying, "Oh man they suck, this sucks, you suck." Not exactly the most intelligent way of expressing your opinion.

[kiotad]

Having said that, I do share the original poster's curiosity. What the #### did they do for that piece?

Not sure what the corps did with it. I have performed the piece several times in my college days and once in my teaching career to get a point across to my students. At Towson University, then Towson State, Hank Levy wrote out a set of parts for the piece for the Jazz Band to play. The performance consisted of the entire ensemble playing the parts he wrote out for their instruments, fingers, slides, sticks flying all over the place and not one unintentional sound was heard. [except the ambient sounds] Earlier in it's history the Symphonic Band kind of did the same thing.

I hope someone out there can fill in the blanks on what the corps did.

gil

[Jimisback]

OK what was his best bit of music?

[boilerman_05]

People always point to that piece (the 4'33'') to say that Cage sucked, but he did about a bajillion other things.

It's like saying that Dali sucked because he put a lobster on a naked girl's head and called it art. It misses the larger picture.

I try to convince people of that very same point about Philip Glass and Einstein on the Beach. In my music classes all we were told about Philip Glass is Einstein on the Beach. I don't think it is fair to Philip Glass or the music community to limit discussion to one piece of work that is hardly representative of the composer as a whole. I recently had a discussion with the band director of the marching band I work for about doing a Philip Glass show (or at least one of his pieces) next year. He responded, "I'm not doing that '1 2 3 4' ####". It's a shame he won't open his mind enough to listen to the beauty that is Metamorphosis, or the driving pulse of The Canyon, or the pure genius behind his Violin Concerto.

[usmpiano]

OK what was his best bit of music?

Check out Michel Legrand's 20th Century Album - track 34 is Cage's Bachanle for Prepared Piano. Great stuff. It was the first one he ever did. Commisioned for a dance concert that couldn't afford multiple percussion instruments, he modified the piano to mimic those sounds. Genius concept.