Please stop referencing 4'33" by John Cage

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This is just a polite request that everyone please stop referencing 4'33" by John Cage. Thanks.

n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 16:11 (nineteen years ago) link

why?

Jay-Kid (Jay-Kid), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 16:12 (nineteen years ago) link

.

mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 16:12 (nineteen years ago) link

Lead by example.

Huk-L, Tuesday, 15 February 2005 16:13 (nineteen years ago) link

OK.

n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 16:13 (nineteen years ago) link

http://www.artnet.com/Magazine/reviews/velez/Images/velez4-2-7.jpg

shit, i forgot the notes.

stevie nixed (stevie nixed), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 16:15 (nineteen years ago) link

i ask again: why?

Jay-Kid (Jay-Kid), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 16:22 (nineteen years ago) link

Because I asked nicely.

n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 16:23 (nineteen years ago) link

I agree. It's the "To be or not to be" of avant garde music.

Hurting (Hurting), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 16:25 (nineteen years ago) link

http://www.mozg.art.pl/obrazki/cage1.gif
"Oooh ZING...you FUCKER!"

known vaginatarian (nickalicious), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 16:25 (nineteen years ago) link

Can we refeence the 9'06" where it's played from beginning to finish and then backwards?

Michael White (Hereward), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 16:25 (nineteen years ago) link

your argument is not impressing me, so far.

Jay-Kid (Jay-Kid), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 16:26 (nineteen years ago) link

because it's too common a reference when someone wants to talk about conceptual art, maybe? because there are probably other, better examples of what you're talking about?

I'm just guessing nick's intention.

Fish fingers all in a line (kenan), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 16:26 (nineteen years ago) link

It's a case of Use Other Signifiers innit. I'm sure the Daily Mail still uses Carl Andre's firebricks as an example of silly-highbrow-art-that-fools-waste-our-public-money-on.

Liz :x (Liz :x), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 16:27 (nineteen years ago) link

John Cage looks like the guy who played Centauri in The Last Starfighter.

known vaginatarian (nickalicious), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 16:27 (nineteen years ago) link

Most of the time, it's just used as an easy joke. If anybody mentions silence, then out comes the 4'33" reference, despite the fact that 4'33" is not silent. It's boring and misinformed, the equivalent of a Michael Jackson child molestation joke for people who like to think of themselves as cultured.

n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 16:32 (nineteen years ago) link

But mostly it's just dull.

n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 16:33 (nineteen years ago) link

But I understand that we're stuck in our ways, and so that's why I'm asking nicely. Thank you for your time.

n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 16:34 (nineteen years ago) link

You speak for the benefit of more than just yourself. Thank you.

dave225 (Dave225), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 16:36 (nineteen years ago) link

the guy who played Centauri in The Last Starfighter

That's not just a guy, that's The Music Man!

http://www.greatstreets.org/MusicMan/MusicManImages/MakingTheMovie/04RobertPreston.JPG

Fish fingers all in a line (kenan), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 16:36 (nineteen years ago) link

Centauri starts with C, and that rhymes with T and that stands for TROUBLE!


(let me rhyme C on your T)

dave225 (Dave225), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 16:40 (nineteen years ago) link

You should write a song about it.

Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 16:42 (nineteen years ago) link

I actually told Kenan and jaymc a couple of weeks ago that I was going to record a conceptual piece made up of the sounds of people referencing 4'33".

n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 16:50 (nineteen years ago) link

i miss mortal kombat.

ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 16:53 (nineteen years ago) link

i'll stop mentioning cage if everyone else stops referencing proust smelling his precious fuckin' cookies in every essay/review i read. Hey, I read the first five fuckin' pages of Swann's Way too! Where's my fuckin' medal!!

scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 16:55 (nineteen years ago) link

Pecan butter-balls usually make me thinking of the Monkees' "Day Dream Believer" that we owned on a red and white 45 when I was a kid.

RS £aRue (rockist_scientist), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 16:56 (nineteen years ago) link

wait - 4'33'' isnt silent? what is it, exactly?

peter smith (plsmith), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 16:57 (nineteen years ago) link

4'33" = Four feet, thirty-three inches?

Ha, I work with a guy who's 4'33". He wouldn't know who John Cage was even if the composer put his teeth on his buttocks and pretended to bite.

Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 16:58 (nineteen years ago) link

I have never heard this recording. Didn't Yoko Ono do something similar?

hobart paving (hobart paving), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 16:58 (nineteen years ago) link

I wish she always did it.

Michael White (Hereward), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 16:59 (nineteen years ago) link

it is a piece where the performer doesn't topuch his instrument for four and a half mins - it is as noisy as it is noisy

cf also "the sounds of your body are part of this record"

mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 17:00 (nineteen years ago) link

Peter: It's supposed to be whatever sounds happen to occur in the room during the time that the piano isn't being played. I performed it a couple months ago at this variety show I host, and during the first minute, there was some predictable tittering, and then about halfway through the heating system went on in a marvelous groan. That's the piece.

jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 17:00 (nineteen years ago) link

wait - 4'33'' isnt silent? what is it, exactly?

Ambient.

(xpost)

JimD (JimD), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 17:01 (nineteen years ago) link

mmm... marvelous groans.

You make it sound really good.

Fish fingers all in a line (kenan), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 17:01 (nineteen years ago) link

it doesn't have to be a piano - the score doesn't specify the instrument

i think there was a distant thunderstorm during the first ever perf (david tudor on piano as per nath's pic)

mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 17:02 (nineteen years ago) link

awesome - i guess i had never heard it explained.

peter smith (plsmith), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 17:03 (nineteen years ago) link

Hm... I wonder what the worst possible circumstances would be for the performance of this piece. Car race? Prison riot?

Fish fingers all in a line (kenan), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 17:04 (nineteen years ago) link

It shows how little pop sensibility Cage had. 4 minutes is just too long.

Michael White (Hereward), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 17:05 (nineteen years ago) link

Yeah, Mark S. is right about the instrument not being specified. Piano seems to be most popular, though, especially because you can make a show of lifting the lid of the piano to signal that the piece has begun.

jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 17:06 (nineteen years ago) link

wikipaedia says cage "chose the length of the famous first premiere performance by chance methods, and later joked that it just as easily could have been any other length"

mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 17:08 (nineteen years ago) link

But yeah. I agree with Nick, and for me the reason it's annoying that it gets over-referenced is that in most cases, the people referring to it are assuming it's something it isn't. This general misconception seems to be that it had the same purpose as Rauschenberg's white canvas, that it was about the negation of a space, or a form of situationist satire on the perception of a performance. And in fact, I think it was just about the "all noise is music" argument, and was intended to encourage a shift in styles of listening. A way of indicating to an audience the extent to which they filter out 'noise' without realising it, by instead forcing them to focus on that noise.

(several xposts)

JimD (JimD), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 17:09 (nineteen years ago) link

i only say "wikpaedia says" bcz i don't ever remember coming across this explanation of the length before, though it makes sense in cage-terms, obv

the piece has three movements though, so in pop-sensibility terms it shd be compared w.three singles not one!

mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 17:10 (nineteen years ago) link

I wonder what the worst possible circumstances would be for the performance of this piece. Car race? Prison riot?

Why worst? They could be the best. Or, in fact, would be no better or worse than any other circumstances.

We're all listening to 4'33 all the time, if we just bother to listen. :)

JimD (JimD), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 17:10 (nineteen years ago) link

(xpost) Yes, that's another good reason for it to be "played" on a piano, because you can turn the page of the score to indicate the transition between movements. (Although I guess in any orchestral setting, you'd be using a score with a music stand, at least.)

jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 17:12 (nineteen years ago) link

it might be confusing to listen to an aerosmith song at the same time as 4'33''.

peter smith (plsmith), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 17:13 (nineteen years ago) link

i only say "wikpaedia says" bcz i don't ever remember coming across this explanation of the length before, though it makes sense in cage-terms, obv

There's stuff about it in Cage's book Silence. And also in Michael Nyman's book Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond

JimD (JimD), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 17:13 (nineteen years ago) link


Michael White (Hereward), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 17:13 (nineteen years ago) link

actually i'm not sure it IS (totally) difft to the rauschenberg white canvas stuff (where the shadows falling across the picture are part of the picture)

anyway rauschenberg white canvases were part of the "happenings" (anachronistic word alert) that cage staged at black mountain college, and the the overall "whatever happens is part of the piece" open ambience aesthetic def applied there

(tho cage did not like the audience staging their own disruptions, interestingly enough) (not that this started hapnin till the late 60s)

mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 17:14 (nineteen years ago) link

it just as easily could have been any other length

good thing he didn't make it several lifetimes long.

Fish fingers all in a line (kenan), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 17:16 (nineteen years ago) link

jim ru sure the LENGTH-determined-by-chance is in nyman and silence? (it might be: i'm just surprised i don't remember it)

mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 17:16 (nineteen years ago) link

one of the acts was this guy (actually the drummer in jaymc's band) reading an essay he wrote about noise and music, and yes, he referenced 4'33".

Mea culpa.

jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 16 February 2005 16:17 (nineteen years ago) link

You should have pulled him aside: "Listen, there's a guy in the audience tonight that hates it when people reference 4'33", so could you tone it down on the Cage a bit?"

Fish fingers all in a line (kenan), Wednesday, 16 February 2005 16:23 (nineteen years ago) link

Haha.

jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 16 February 2005 16:27 (nineteen years ago) link

I would like to point out that there is a wonderful essay called "The Sounds of Silence. John Cage and 4'33"", written by Larry J Solomon, that is very enlightening. You can find it here.

Björn Magnusson, Wednesday, 16 February 2005 18:16 (nineteen years ago) link

That disc with Concert for Piano and Orchestra and Atlas Eclipticalis, the one on Wergo, is pretty great.

Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 16 February 2005 20:44 (nineteen years ago) link

i don't see what abba has to do with john cage, jaymc

Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Wednesday, 16 February 2005 20:47 (nineteen years ago) link

three years pass...

riygar3 (5 days ago) +1 Reply
Could you imagine if all musicians did this , and just sat around listening to just sounds, whether its acoustic or whatever. Nothing would ever get done! It would be like watching a black screen when you went to the movie theater and just heard some sounds and talking every now and then, I mean it might be good for shits and giggles, but come on man, the whole idea of making music is using some form of action on the persons behalf to create a certain energy, vibration,etc with the body.

I know, right?, Sunday, 24 August 2008 17:04 (fifteen years ago) link

OK that's funny. The pic in the 4th post down is a piece on of my classmates from grad school did.

Sparkle Motion, Sunday, 24 August 2008 17:08 (fifteen years ago) link

Have you heard the one about the Quaker choir?

Their repertoire is pretty small, all they ever seem to play is 4'33"!

Masonic Boom, Sunday, 24 August 2008 17:19 (fifteen years ago) link

it might be confusing to listen to an aerosmith song at the same time as 4'33''.

-- peter smith (plsmith), Tuesday, February 15, 2005 12:13 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark Link

this made me lol

Whiney G. Weingarten, Sunday, 24 August 2008 17:23 (fifteen years ago) link

I was watching the youtube vid that comment comes from whilst listening to music

I know, right?, Sunday, 24 August 2008 17:27 (fifteen years ago) link

  

libcrypt, Sunday, 24 August 2008 17:42 (fifteen years ago) link

two years pass...

Been reading 'silence' for about ten years now and I don't think I'll ever get bored of it. Every now and then something just really hits me. Always find myself smiling when im reading it. Gonna pop to the Hayward this Friday, they're showing some if his stuff there.

Crackle Box, Wednesday, 17 August 2011 18:25 (twelve years ago) link

Man, thread title otm for real tho

Erin Go! Bwaaaah!!! (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, 17 August 2011 20:39 (twelve years ago) link

not a day goes by...

Crackle Box, Wednesday, 17 August 2011 21:14 (twelve years ago) link

those illipses were referencing 4'33

owenf, Wednesday, 17 August 2011 22:45 (twelve years ago) link

four months pass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQa4DL17Aug

meisenfek, Friday, 13 January 2012 02:46 (twelve years ago) link

six years pass...

stop referencing the overton window

na (NA), Monday, 16 July 2018 17:20 (five years ago) link

references of schrodinger's cat seem to have slowed down, that was a big one for a while

na (NA), Monday, 16 July 2018 17:20 (five years ago) link

basically i'm trying to turn this thread into the ZOMBIES/BACON thread but for people who are trying to sound smart instead of trying to sound rAnDoM

na (NA), Monday, 16 July 2018 17:21 (five years ago) link

imo, Cage was just playing second fiddle to Duchamp and unimaginatively at that.

A is for (Aimless), Monday, 16 July 2018 17:29 (five years ago) link

i went to see a student of Cage's give a talk and at the end of it a performance of this song which was yeah just as exciting as an art gallery full of people trying not to cough could possibly be.

the whole time i was wondering wouldn't it be cool to just start singing "Dust in the Wind" or "Freebird" or whatever and keep it going for the duration. the whole conceit of 4'33" being that IT'S WHATVER SOUNDS U HEAR MAN would probably be hard to square w a loudmouth belting out an AOR classic.

Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Monday, 16 July 2018 17:48 (five years ago) link

What was on the b-side?

Mark G, Monday, 23 July 2018 11:55 (five years ago) link

Overrated pap

No angel came (Ross), Monday, 23 July 2018 12:33 (five years ago) link

aimless wrong about everything as always

mark s, Monday, 23 July 2018 12:41 (five years ago) link

Oof

No angel came (Ross), Monday, 23 July 2018 12:43 (five years ago) link

one year passes...

Been getting really into the prepared piano pieces, and the album of Gamelan interpretations that's out there. Like anything in the classical world (apparently), there so many recordings and versions out there. Can anyone recommend some definitive recordings for Cage's prepared piano pieces (and anything in a similar realm for him)?

change display name (Jordan), Thursday, 2 July 2020 21:27 (three years ago) link

When kids stop blasting it every fucking night when I'm trying to sleep, I'll stop referencing it.

Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 2 July 2020 21:33 (three years ago) link

I'm saying nothing

Mark G, Thursday, 2 July 2020 21:36 (three years ago) link

wow I was annoying

na (NA), Thursday, 2 July 2020 21:38 (three years ago) link

Sorry for the revive, but it's unfortunate that "John Cage" became so synonymous with 4'33, because I never actually checked out his work that involved notes until the past year

change display name (Jordan), Thursday, 2 July 2020 21:42 (three years ago) link

Jeffrey Pierce is pretty good.

Boring, Maryland, Thursday, 2 July 2020 21:51 (three years ago) link

xpost Have you ever read any of his books? I highly recommend Silence.

Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 2 July 2020 21:53 (three years ago) link

.

Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 2 July 2020 22:36 (three years ago) link

that was the post equivalent of 4' 33"

Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 2 July 2020 22:36 (three years ago) link

funnier in 2005 imo

mark s, Thursday, 2 July 2020 22:39 (three years ago) link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-3iLnXV90s

who needs an MPC?

Donald Trump Also Sucks, Of Course (milo z), Thursday, 2 July 2020 23:00 (three years ago) link

I'm a sucker for Indeterminacy, Jordan; try that.
also dig the toy/prepared piano stuff.

Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Friday, 3 July 2020 01:48 (three years ago) link

We have this thread about his music fwiw: John Cage: Classic or Dud? Search and Destroy

Feel a million filaments (Sund4r), Friday, 3 July 2020 02:06 (three years ago) link

wow I was annoying

― na (NA), Thursday, July 2, 2020 5:38 PM (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

i always assumed your username meant Not Applicable

℺ ☽ ⋠ ⏎ (✖), Friday, 3 July 2020 03:09 (three years ago) link

wow I was annoying

― na (NA), Thursday, July 2, 2020 2:38 PM (eight hours ago)

new board description?

Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Friday, 3 July 2020 05:59 (three years ago) link

three months pass...

no one has actually watched "salo" but everyone keeps it in their back pocket for easy edgy responses to tweets like "what movie do you wish they would make into a theme park ride?"

na (NA), Tuesday, 20 October 2020 18:20 (three years ago) link

na otm, I was struck this summer by how many Twitter "personalities" were suddenly left with no choice but to demonstratively tweet about being "forced" to watch Salo on exterior projection screens.

soaring skrrrtpeggios (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, 20 October 2020 18:25 (three years ago) link

I mean, maybe it wasn't a bunch of people, but I distinctly remember at least three incidents where people were tweeting about how embarrassing it was that their "film clubs" just happened to have already picked Salo for a screening but, "oops pandemic" and they just had to screen it outdoors, "haha how transgressive!".

soaring skrrrtpeggios (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, 20 October 2020 18:30 (three years ago) link

we watched a bootleg VHS dub of salo in film school back in the day, the prof was very proud & titillated to have sourced an uncut copy, and afterwards was absolutely absolutely with me when i wouldnt concede my view that we probably could have just read about it instead of actually being made to sit through it

turn the jawhatthefuckever on (One Eye Open), Tuesday, 20 October 2020 18:58 (three years ago) link

"abosultely furious" with me, that is. (getting flustered recalling all the transgressive depravity.)

turn the jawhatthefuckever on (One Eye Open), Tuesday, 20 October 2020 18:59 (three years ago) link

A friend of mine watched Salo in film class. Reaching for his lunch, he was dismayed to find it contained chocolate pudding.

Halfway there but for you, Tuesday, 20 October 2020 19:04 (three years ago) link

I put a performance of 4’33” on my “is this music?” playlist for discussion in class and one of my students brought it up today. She was like “what’s the deal with the one where the people just sit there??” And we talked about it. No regrets for bringing it up bc it illustrated a useful concept for me: “humor” in music that’s not verbal humor. Good discussion!!

weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Thursday, 22 October 2020 23:57 (three years ago) link

Also now if anyone ever references it, they’ll understand.

weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Thursday, 22 October 2020 23:58 (three years ago) link


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