John Cage - 4'33 of silence I never seem to have

     The 20th century was the century of a complete revision of the foundations of art in the broadest sense of the word. In music, one of the key works reflecting this trend was the play by the American avant-garde minimalist composer John Cage "4'33" or "Four minutes thirty-three seconds" (1952). The play consists of three parts, each of which was a segment of silence.

     During the performance, the musician sat down, for example, in front of the piano and did nothing for exactly four minutes and thirty-three seconds, except perhaps for raising and lowering the lid of the instrument. At the same time, the piece could be performed on any instrument, so this was only a technical question and nothing more. According to the author's intention, during the performance of the play, the listener had to catch the silence. But what does silence mean in this context?

     In the usual sense of the word, silence is opposed to sound, including music - these are pure antonyms. And in such a paradigm of reflection, Cage's composition looks like some kind of mockery, joke, outrageousness and provocation, but not music at all. But an alternative strategy is also possible, in which "4'33" is still art, is music, and then silence should be considered in some other sense.

     Cage's performance of 4'33'' is reminiscent of the strategy of making the mundane unique. Everyday noises are placed in the space of musical performance: there is a musician, there is an instrument, there is a score, a listener, and there are exactly four minutes and thirty-three seconds. We hear the context in which the work is reproduced. That is, music is designed to make us hear this context. Cage himself said that in the future the traditional model of dividing the sound into consonant and dissonant would be replaced by a division based on the principle of noise and musical sound on the score. That is, noise is included by Cage in the broad concept of music. There is confusion at first, and I still do not understand what is so special about silence and simple noises, while music is the art that people come for.