How important is John Cage's composition 4'33"

It's the most concise summary of his entire philosophy

very

Ive started making lowercase music so that I guess

>>68232086
its just the philosophical concept of appreciating the natural world around you as high art, with a dash of absurdism.

I made an entire ep based off pretentious wankery like that

So, not very

>>68232442
>philosophical concept of appreciating the natural world around you as high art
strongly disagree with this. Offhand I dont have a better explanation, just that its not this.

1. thats what field recordings are
2. what if its completely quiet

silence and chance in experimental music is huge now, so id say extremely

>>68232500
field recordings are tied to the image of what you're hearing. cage was focused on sounds themselves, from an acousmatic perspective. field recordings also did not exist as music before cage anyway

>>68232563
and what if its completely quiet?

I just think it was a statement about the definition of composition. The same way painters make statements. This is the most extreme example of musical minimalism.

>>68232500
Cage didn't believe in absolute silence. In a theoretical vacuum, you can hear your heartbeat.

>>68232602
>and what if its completely quiet
not possible if you're at a real-life performance, or you're listening to an accurate recording of a real environment.

and no, cage wrote extensively about his musical philosophy.

>>68232616
>In a theoretical vacuum, you can hear your heartbeat.
wtf no you can't

I can hear it with my head on a pillow thats it

>>68232627
>not possible if you're at a real-life performance
yeah it actually is possible

plausible? no. possible? yes

File: article-2124581-1274105D000005DC-638_634x421.jpg (64KB, 634x421px) Image search: [Google]

64KB, 634x421px

>>68232677
>>68232627
>>68232720
>Members of the public must book a tour to visit the room, and are only allowed in for a short and supervised stay. According to the lab's website, only members of the media are permitted to stay in the chamber alone for prolonged periods of time. One reporter lasted up to 45 minutes, and most people leave after half that time, tortured by the eerie sounds of their own body. “In the anechoic chamber, you become the sound,” says Mr. Orfield. In the absence of outside noise, it is the presence of maddening silence to which the ears adapt. As ears adapt to silence, the sounds of your heart beat, stomach, and lungs are your only reference, and it can be a very disorienting experience.

http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/worlds-quietest-place

The first time Cage mentioned the idea of a piece composed entirely of silence was during a 1947 (or 1948) lecture at Vassar College, A Composer's Confessions. Cage told the audience that he had "several new desires", one of which was

to compose a piece of uninterrupted silence and sell it to Muzak Co. It will be three or four-and-a-half minutes long—those being the standard lengths of "canned" music and its title will be Silent Prayer. It will open with a single idea which I will attempt to make as seductive as the color and shape and fragrance of a flower. The ending will approach imperceptibility.[11]

told you

>>68232757
In 1951, Cage visited the anechoic chamber at Harvard University. An anechoic chamber is a room designed in such a way that the walls, ceiling and floor absorb all sounds made in the room, rather than reflecting them as echoes. Such a chamber is also externally sound-proofed. Cage entered the chamber expecting to hear silence, but he wrote later, "I heard two sounds, one high and one low. When I described them to the engineer in charge, he informed me that the high one was my nervous system in operation, the low one my blood in circulation."[14] Cage had gone to a place where he expected total silence, and yet heard sound. "Until I die there will be sounds. And they will continue following my death. One need not fear about the future of music."[15] The realization as he saw it of the impossibility of silence led to the composition of 4′33″.

thats handy that the sound engineer was also a medical doctor

he was hearing his own fucking tinnitus the fucking idiot

This inspired Cage to use a similar idea, as he later stated, "Actually what pushed me into it was not guts but the example of Robert Rauschenberg. His white paintings [...] when I saw those, I said, 'Oh yes, I must. Otherwise I'm lagging, otherwise music is lagging'."[16] In an introduction to an article called On Robert Rauschenberg, Artist, and His Works, John Cage writes "To Whom It May Concern: The white paintings came first; my silent piece came later."[17]

>when I saw those, I said, 'Oh yes, I must. Otherwise I'm lagging, otherwise music is lagging'.
>laughing_whores

>>68232616
>>68232677
>>68232757

In a 'theoretical' vacuum (I assume this means a perfect vacuum) there is not sound, because there is nothing. Not that that matters since a perfect vacuum is most likely impossible. An anechoic chamber is not a vacuum.

>>68232906
>In a 'theoretical' vacuum (I assume this means a perfect vacuum) there is not sound
yeah there is. Inside your body. You should theoretically be able to hear your heartbeat in space but only if you put your head on a pillow.

>>68232086
It opened the doors to the idea that any sound could be music, including the ambient sound of the world around you.

>>68232853
initially read that as
>lagging_whores

>>68232086
It couldn't be more irrelevant

ITT people don't know Cage's philosophies

ITT people misinterpreting Cage's philosophies

regardless, artist intent means literally jack shit