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First performed at the midpoint of the twentieth century, John Cage’s 4'33", a composition conceived of without a single musical note, is among the most celebrated and ballyhooed cultural gestures in the history of modern music. A meditation on the act of listening and the nature of performance, Cage’s controversial piece became the iconic statement of the meaning of silence in art and is a landmark work of American music.
In this book, Kyle Gann, one of the nation’s leading music critics, explains 4'33" as a unique moment in American culture and musical composition. Finding resemblances and resonances of 4'33" in artworks as wide-ranging as the paintings of the Hudson River School and the music of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, he provides much-needed cultural context for this fundamentally challenging and often misunderstood piece. Gann also explores Cage’s craft, describing in illuminating detail the musical, philosophical, and even environmental influences that informed this groundbreaking piece of music. Having performed 4'33" himself and as a composer in his own right, Gann offers the reader both an expert’s analysis and a highly personal interpretation of Cage’s most divisive work.
“The former Village Voice new-music critic examines the ways in which Cage's piece was and is boosted and derided, and the result is an easily digestible yet illuminating volume.”—J. Gabriel Boylan, Bookforum
— J. Gabriel Boylan
“4''33", Gann argues, though often suspected of being merely a ‘provocative stunt,’ is actually one of the best understood and most influential works of avant-garde music. . . . In describing the piece’s premières and reception, Gann recaptures its ‘Promethean’ impact, which cost Cage some friends and prompted his mother to ask, ‘Don’t you think that John has gone too far this time?’ ”--The New Yorker
"Gann''s book amply demonstrates [that] Cage''s so-called silent piece is as resonant with philosophical, historical, and acoustical complexities as many a noisier composition. . . . Gann''s account so perceptively synthesizes the irreducible disparity about the origin of Cage''s seemingly simple gesture that it will doubtlessly become the (unstable) foundation for many future interpretive engagements with the piece. . . . It is the great merit of Gann''s book to have revealed just how multidimensional even Cage''s most seemingly unidimensional gesture can be."—Brandon Joseph, American Music
— Brandon Joseph
Preface ix
1 4'33" at First Listening 1
2 The Man: 1912-1949 32
3 Dramatis Personae (Predecessors and Influences) 71
4 The Path to 4'33": 1946 to 1952 121
5 The Piece and Its Notations 167
6 The Legacy 188
Appendix 4'33" Discography 215
Notes 219
Bibliography 233
Index 241
JAMANN
Posted October 11, 2011
This book is about John Cage's controversial piece, 4'33''. For those of you who don't know the piece, it is basically four minutes and thirty-three seconds of silence. The author, Kyle Gann, describes how Cage wanted to illustrate what happened in the silence of the piece, however, his first audiences did not understand his music. Gann relates personal experiences to Cage's work, and describes in detail the thought behind the piece. I like this detail because it gives me insight into what was going on in the brain of the composer. An obvious theme of the book is that there truly is no such thing as silence, as the book's title suggests. As a musician and composer, I can relate to this book because it is always nerve wracking to think that people will not understand or accept your music.
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Overview
First performed at the midpoint of the twentieth century, John Cage’s 4'33", a composition conceived of without a single musical note, is among the most celebrated and ballyhooed cultural gestures in the history of modern music. A meditation on the act of listening and the nature of performance, Cage’s controversial piece became the iconic statement of the meaning of silence in art and is a landmark work of American music.
In this book, Kyle Gann, one of the nation’s leading ...