In 1951 Mr. JOHN CAGE sought total silence in an anechoic chamber at Harvard University. In going to a place where he expected absolute silence, he heard the flutter of his own heart; a mild case of tinnitus perhaps, and the impossibility of silence. The following year, CAGE composed a piece, 4’33”, in which the performer produces no deliberately musical sound for four minutes and thirty-three seconds and the audience is confronted with whatever ambient and incidental sounds happen to be around at the time. Anyone can play 4’33”, with any instrument or combination of instruments, and is kindly advised to do so every now and then.




















COMMENTS
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