Scholarly discussion of the music of John Cage.

[Dionisis Boukouvalas <>]

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Date: Wed, 26 Oct 2011 08:47:16 -0400
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Subject: [silence] more on 0'00", in 'For the Birds'

Cage and Charles go on to talk about Cage's third 'silent' piece which involves two or more people playing a game such as chess, with actions again highly amplified. "A bridge or chess match, or any game at all, can become a distinct—another essentially silent—musical work."

Does this third 'silent' piece exist as a published score? Perhaps this connects somehow with Reunion (also 1968), although in that collaborative performance the game players' actions were not amplified.

Undoubtedly. Cage would not repeat himself, like he did not repeat himself passing from 4'33'' to 0'00''. So, 4'33'' is a transformation of "silence" into sound (in fact bringing sound into focus), 0'00'' a transformation of an action into sound, and "Reunion" a transformation (in fact, a translation) of action(s) into other action(s) and sound(s). Makes perfect sense. Or it's like "seeing" sound (which also reminds me of the silent television of the last Europera).