Scholarly discussion of the music of John Cage.

[Ed Crooks <>]

I wonder if the version mentioned below is the one Cage talks about in 1990, printed in Retallack's MusiCage, p.77:

Retallack asks Cage if he ever thought 4'33" was ironic. Cage says:

'No, I just think of it as listening to the period of time when there aren't any sounds being produced. And so I listen to the sounds that come into the situation - whatever that is... Now I think of it more in relation to the world as a whole. And I have another form of it which brings the silence of the room up to the level of feedback but doesn't allow the feedback to be hear, only sensed, so that you realize that you're in an electronic situation that could be painful. But isn't, hmm? But could be. And in that highly electrified silence I then leave the stage and go and sit in the audience and experience it for an unmeasured length of time. And then, when I've had enough, I go back to the stage and that's it. What's in my mind - it might have some irony - but what I think I'm showing is that we have changed the environment, and that it's no longer... it's now a technological silence, hmm? that now silence includes technology. In a way that is not necessarily... good. That could involve, hmm? irony? Or something like criticism?'

best,

Ed Crooks

University of York, Department of Music

---

From: David Miller <>
To: Dionisis Boukouvalas <>
Cc:
Sent: Wednesday, 26 October 2011, 23:47
Subject: [silence] Re: RE: more on 0'00", in 'For the Birds'

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this yet, but there's also the very
interesting One/3 (can't do superscript numbers here). The full title is
33" (0' 00") + [treble clef]. This appears to be a one-sentence
composition, unpublished? The text is "Arrange the soundsystem so that the
whole hall is on the edge of feedback, without actually feeding back."

Found in Andre Chaudron's worklist: http://www.johncage.info/index2.html.

David M.
Jamaica Plain, Mass.

> From:
> Date: Wed, 26 Oct 2011 08:47:16 -0400
> To:
> 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).