[silence] Question about the composition 4'33''

[Ralph Lichtensteiger]

Dear Suzanne,

4'33'' was not a "assignment piece." 4'33'' is influenced by Robert  
Rauschenberg's "white paintings" which he created 1951 at Black  
Mountain College. While generally misunderstood at the time, the  
"white paintings" were highly influential for Rauschenberg's frequent  
collaborator, John Cage.

"... Cage returned to New York from Black Mountain College, where he  
had viewed Robert Ruschenberg's series of all-white paintings. If it  
was the implications of Rauschenberg's redical act—that a canvas need  
include neither image nor even, as the abstract experessionists had  
hoped, gesture—that emboldened Cage to begin composing the piece, it  
was Tudor's interest in performing it that persuaded him to finish  
it. When the composer expressed daubts about presenting, as a serious  
work of music, a chance-generated sum of silences, the pianist  
replied that he hoped Cage would complete the composition in time for  
a recital he was planning to give in Woodstock, NY, at the end of the  
month." — The Cambridge Companion to John Cage, Cage and Tudor (John  
Holzaepfel) page 174-175

"Cage interpreted the blank surfaces as "landing strips" or receptors  
for light and shadow, and was inspired to pursue the corresponding  
notion of silence and ambient sound in music. His response,  
4'33" (1952), consisted of the pianist sitting quietly at the piano  
without touching the keys for four minutes and thirty-three seconds  
so that incidental sounds in the surrounding environment—such as the  
wind in the trees outside or the whispering of audience members— 
determined the content of the piece."

http://www.guggenheim.org/exhibitions/singular_forms/highlights_1a.html

Bibliography:

- David Revill, The Roaring Silence, page 164-167 (London, 1992)
- The Cambridge Companion to John Cage, Cage and Tudor (John  
Holzaepfel) page 174-175

and:
- Marcel Cobussen, DECONSTRUCTION IN MUSIC. Five times around music.  
Five different entries to discover how deconstruction articulates  
itself in music. The Gift Of Silence [donner les bruits]: On Music,  
Noise And Silence
http://www.cobussen.com/proefschrift/300_john_cage/317_cage_and_noise/ 
317b_music_noise_silence_sound/music_noise_silence_sound.htm#2
- Richard Kostelanetz, Proposal for Artists in America
http://www.richardkostelanetz.com/prop/artists.php

Kind regards,
ralph lichtensteiger
http://www.lichtensteiger.de/diary.html



On Mar 1, 2007, at 4:08 PM, Suzanne wrote:

> Hello everybody,
>
> This is a rather unusual question but maybe one of you knows the  
> answer. I'm working on a paper about the composition 4'33'' and I  
> need to know who financed/sponsored the 'project'. The assignment  
> requires a description about the relationship between the financer/ 
> sponsor and the composer although, personally, I think that it was  
> John Cage himself who financed it. But unfortunately I can't verify  
> that so I'm asking if one of you the answer. I hope so.
>
> Greetings,
>
> Suzanne
>
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