<$BlogRSDURL$>
: : : nostress ~ sidelinks : : :
welcome, to the lab of the zeroheroes ! here, in 0 time & 0 style, we'll try to serve you some interesting ressources, statements, manifests, study's, archives and other stuff that might help you to get . . . totally lost!

image (c) Bert Lezy
0

Friday, May 07, 2004


close your eyes 




Silence

I have always taken for granted that John Cage's 4'33'' was a joke. The idea of a piece of music without any music just seemed like avantgarde arriving at its final point where it abolishes itself. After having read most of this longish essay on 4'33'' (discovered at popshots) I must admit that I was wrong. In the essay it says on the first performance of 4'33'' at Woodstock, New York, on August 29, 1952 by David Tudor, a young pianist:


Tudor placed the hand-written score, which was in conventional notation with blank measures, on the piano and sat motionless as he used a stopwatch to measure the time of each movement. The score indicated three silent movements, each of a different length, but when added together totalled four minutes and thirty-three seconds. Tudor signaled its commencement by lowering the keyboard lid of the piano. The sound of the wind in the trees entered the first movement. After thirty seconds of no action, he raised the lid to signal the end of the first movement. It was then lowered for the second movement, during which raindrops pattered on the roof. The score was in several pages, so he turned the pages as time passed, yet playing nothing at all. The keyboard lid was raised and lowered again for the final movement, during which the audience whispered and muttered.

This account already shows what 4'33'' is about. It is not about silence at all but about its opposite. About noises. The roles of composer/performer and audience are kind of reversed. The audience (plus outside environment) make the "music". 4'33'' is the only piece of music which hands over the performance to the audience. That means of course that 4'33'' is totally different every time it is "played". It is unforeseeable which sounds the listeners will make. In a way it is the most democratic of all compositions. Cage says it better:


I think perhaps my own best piece, at least the one I like the most, is the silent piece. It has three movements and in all of the movements there are no (intentional) sounds. I wanted my work to be free of my own likes and dislikes, because I think music should be free of the feelings and ideas of the composer. I have felt and hoped to have led other people to feel that the sounds of their environment constitute a music which is more interesting than the music which they would hear if they went into a concert hall.

...more...

via said the gramophone


different sounds


Posted by: slÖ / 4:32 AM






take me
::: to the top :::
::: to the lab-archives :::
::: to the :::nostress::: homepage :::
::: to the :::nostress::: archives :::
::: to the pics :::

www.flickr.com
photos in Situationism More photos in Situationism

Acronym Finder

Acronym or abbreviation to find:


0 linking 0
Blogroll Me!

Powered by Blogger