Valerie Tjota

Norsalawati Binte Salamat

Contextual Studies

20 April 2017

Can John Cages composition, 433, be considered music?

American composer John Cage was an experimental music theorist who throughout his

career, deviated from the conventions of what one would normally consider as music and aimed to

redefine and re-establish the preconceived notions of music. He explored at length the relationship

between music, silence, and noise, and through his creations, challenged the boundaries between

these three elements. Amongst all his compositions, Cage was arguably most renowned for his

silent piece, 4'33". Composed in 1952, the work was originally a three-movement work for piano,

with each movement instructing the performer to remain silent by indication of the performance

direction tacet for the duration of the accompanying time indication, the sum of all three being 4

minutes and 33 seconds. 4'33" goes against the conventions of classical music or the bedrock of

traditional musical performances - it entails the presence of the performer and his instrument, yet

instructs the performer to remain silent throughout the course of the entire performance. However,

to clarify, even though 4'33" as a composition and performance does not offer tangible music as a

direct result of the performer producing sounds, many theorists have come to an consensus that

4'33" is not a silent piece, as it is the residual sounds of the environment that fill the void of silence

provided by the performer. Cages controversial work has sparked numerous debates, discussions

and arguments on whether or not the composition can be classified as music. This essay will explore

Cages composition as a conceptual piece and a sonic experience that reflects on the world of

music, without itself being a musical work as it does not fulfil the necessary criteria of being music.
 Firstly, 433", which exclusively comprises whatever arbitrary or accidental sounds that

occur during the period of silence, cannot be regarded as a piece of music. To determine if 4'33" can

be considered as music, a working definition of music is required in order to discuss, explore and

classify what is understood as being music. The fundamental principle which underlies numerous

definitions of music is the notion that music is the art of organized sound. Ethnomusicologist John

Blacking, for example, defines music as humanly organised sound or purposeful organization of

sound (3). However, it is crucial to note that even though music consists of sound - that is to say,

sound is a necessary component of music - not all sound is tantamount to music. Levinson suggests

that there are sonic arts such as poetry, drama, and performance arts, which are not regarded as

music (267-78). To add on, it is also necessary to clarify that music does not consist solely of sound,

but rather, of both sound and silence. Hanslick succinctly summarizes all the above conditions in his

statement that music is complex amalgam of melody, harmony, rhythm, timbre and silence in a

particular organised structure (Cobussen, Thinking Sounds).

4'33", in this regard, does not constitute a piece of music as it fails to satisfy the proposed

criteria above that music must be organized sound. There are two strands of opinion regarding 4'33"

- the first as consisting of 4 minutes and 33 seconds of complete silence, and the second as

comprising whatever arbitrary sounds which occur during the interval of the performance. For Cage

himself, there was no such thing as true or complete silence - during his 1951 visit to an anechoic

chamber designed to eliminate all sound, he discovered that the total silence he had anticipated was

in fact dominated by two noises: those of his own nervous system and his blood circulating.

Accordingly, in Cages work, the silence of the performers can in fact be regarded as a medium for

the occurrence of ambient noises coming from the surrounding environment, such as the buzzing of

the air conditioner, as well as arbitrary sounds made at the discretion of audience, such as the sound

of ones coughing.
 In other words, the contents of the composition are solely determined by factors which are

independent from the composers or performers control, consisting only of sounds that are

occurring without method or conscious decision. This is contrary to conventional works of music,

whereby it is the performers role to consciously produce sounds by following instructions

intentionally made by the composer through the means of his score. Additionally, in this traditional

context, external sounds that occur during the performance, such as coughing or shuffling of feet,

are treated as extraneous noises and considered to be an intrusion or disturbance to the musical

performance. In Cages work however, all sounds that occur within the temporal boundaries of the

piece belong to the performance. The conductor or performer merely marks the beginning and

ending of each of the three movements of the piece, but neither the composer nor the performers

have control over how the performance of the work sounds. That being the case, Cage's piece thus

fails to meet the fundamental condition of music being organised sound, as any sounds made by the

audience during the duration of the work are accidental or arbitrary, rather than organized or

instructed by the composer.

Conversely, there are theorists who argue otherwise and contend that the silence and sounds

in 4'33" qualify as organised sounds, thus rendering the composition to be a piece of music. In each

performance of 4'33", there is an act of marking the start and end of each of the three movements of

the piece. For instance, at the world premiere of the composition, pianist David Tudor walked out

on stage, arrived at the piano and proceeded to close the lid. He re-opened the lid at the end of the

first movement, and this action of closing and opening was repeated again before the second and

third movements. The gesture of opening and closing the piano lid, which signifies the start and end

of each movement, can be thought of as framing the silence of the performers, and thereby framing

the sounds that occur during that period of silence (Kania 13). Additionally, Cages intentions

regarding the contents of the work was to deliberately have the performers be silent in order for

ambient sounds that would be dismissed as noise in traditional musical performances to emerge as
the music itself. The act of framing then effectively structures the performance into three tangible

movements, and consequently, the arbitrary sounds that Cage intended to highlight through the

silence of the performer can be perceived to be organised by virtue of the framing actions of the

performer. On this account, the sounds in 4'33" fulfil the condition of being organised sound, and

should qualify as a piece of music. Furthermore, there are also arguments that if the silence in a

traditional musical composition such as a Beethoven symphony, for instance, is deemed as music,

then so should the silence in Cages 4'33".

Both Kania and Davies, however, disagree. Kania refutes this claim, reasoning that the

silence of a performer of 433 simply does not bear the same relation to the sounds that occur

during the performance as either the silences of a performer who observes the rests while playing a

conventional melody or the silences that frame a traditional performance. In 433, the performers

silence highlights the sounds that occur while she is silent, rather than articulating the sounds

surrounded by (or surrounding) her silences (7). Additionally, Davies posits that for a collection

of sounds to count as organized, the performance must include the possibility of unorganised

sounds (Davies, "John Cage's 4'33". Is it music?). That is to say, to determine if a sound is

organized, there must be a clear distinction between sounds which are organised and unorganised.

In a performance of a Beethoven symphony for example, it is clear what counts as music and what

is regarded as noise, as there as an obvious disparity between organised sound (the sounds made by

the performers following the instruction of the composer), and unorganised sound. In contrast, no

such distinction exists in 4'33" as Cage has expanded the parameters of music to include all sounds,

thereby excluding the possibility of noise, and hence of organization. (Davies, "John Cage's 4'33".

Is it music?)
 Secondly, 4'33" is a work about music, without itself being music - it provides little aesthetic

value or musical experience on its own, and relies on context for presentation of its effect. Kania

propounds that Music is (1) any event intentionally produced or organized (2) to be heard, and (3)

either (a) to have some basic musical feature, such as pitch or rhythm, or (b) to be listened to for

such features. (15) The nature of Cages work is such that its content, which include both the

silences and sounds that are in existence during each performance of the work, posses no element,

characteristic, or basic musical features that are integral to a traditional work of music, such as

pitch, melody, rhythm or harmony. The absence of these musical characteristics renders the works

contents unmusical and lacking in aesthetic value. As a result, Cages composition requires a

context for it to be successful in producing its desired or intended outcome, namely, to challenge

listeners to listen to ambient sounds with the same concentrated attention and intention as a

conventional piece of music would entail. The silence and sounds in 4'33" would be considered

unmusical outside of the circumstances that form the setting for which it can be fully understood.

Conventional works of music are able to exist independently regardless of the context,

manner, or medium in which it is performed or presented. For instance, a Beethoven Symphony, is

effectively still a piece of music whether a recording of it is played over the radio, or whether it is

performed live in a concert hall. The sounds which the composer instructs the performers to make

are inherently musical - they contain elements of pitch, rhythm, and harmony. Additionally, it does

not require the involvement of the listener or the participation of an audience for it to function and

exist as music. In contrast, 4'33"s contents are largely dependent on two factors: the surrounding

environment, and the audiences participation or reaction to the piece during the performance or

presentation of the work itself. The experience of 433" is, for all intents and purposes, generated

from its context: the deliberate silence of the performers, which gives rise to the non-musical

sounds occurring in the venue, and the reactions made by the audience. Cage created 4'33" for the

very purposes of encouraging the masses to be open to the possibility that all sounds should be
treated the same way as music. This concept is conveyed in a performance of 4'33", during which

the audience is compelled to listen carefully to sounds that would traditionally be ignored or

dismissed as ambient noise. Correspondingly, in the absence of Cages intentional context, the

contents of the work exist simply as noise and are bereft of any musical or aesthetic qualities. Taken

out of context, these sounds are purely random or irregular vibrations of sound particles that do not

contain meaningful data or other information, and do not qualify as music. Thus, 4'33" is a

conceptual work about music that is designed to prompt reflections on the boundaries of music,

silence and noise by virtue of its context, but it is not in itself a piece of music.

Proponents of the Modernist music movement, however, would argue otherwise. The

experimental spirit of the Modernist epoch culminated in the several revolutionary schools of the

time, such as Karlheinz Stockhausens electronic music, and Pierre Schaeffers music of non-

musical sounds. Such music utilizes sound-based operations that present non-musical sounds and

noise as its central feature, thus espousing the notion that any sound can be music, and challenging

the boundaries of what is conventionally recognised to be music (Priest 132). An example of such a

work is Alvin Luciers tape recording known as I Am Sitting in A Room, in which Lucier records

himself recording a script, plays the recording and records the playback. This process is then and

repeated 50 times, resulting in crackling or hissing noises and other acoustical interferences that

were produced as a result of the layering of each playback upon another. Like Cages controversial

composition, I Am Sitting in A Room has also provoked discussions on whether or not non-salient

sounds like silence and noise should be regarded as music at all.

In refutation to this claim, Kania contends that these are artists who produce sounds for

what we might call artistic or aesthetic appreciation, but who, like Cage, more or less explicitly

intend us to listen to these sounds not under musical concepts, but more purely as the sounds they
are in themselves (15). In other words, while the works they create provide a sonic experience and

are works of sound art, they are not music. The context in which Cage places the audience prompts

them to consider the value of ambient sounds and noises possess if one would listen to them with

the same careful attention as appreciating a traditional work of music. While this process of

intentional listening may impart to these sounds the same importance or value as music, it does not

confer musical attributes to the sounds. Hence, 4'33" is not music but is instead, a sonic experience

that is inextricable from the concept which it espouses.

Davies agrees with this, claiming that the sounds to which Cage draws out attention derives

from being brought into relation to music through his invocation of the practice of musical

performance via the manner in which 4'33" is presented (Davies, "John Cage's 4'33". Is it

music?). The audience and listeners who buy 4'33" are not buying the silence or the ambient

sounds, but rather, they are buying a concept. They are buying Cages notion on the identity of

music; they are buying Cages attempt to challenge established musical preconceptions and expand

the boundaries of music to include silence and noise; they are buying an opportunity to reflect upon

the idea that silence is not necessarily the absence of sound, but a medium for sounds which are

usually ignored in a day-to-day context to emerge.

In conclusion, Cages composition, 4'33" can either be interpreted as a work of sonic art, or

as a conceptual piece that reflects on the world of music, but it is not in itself a piece of music.

Essentially, Cages deconstruction of the dichotomies of music and noise, sound and silence, hinges

on establishing an aesthetic frame around aleatory or unintentional noise, thus inviting audiences to

acknowledge the intrinsic acoustic properties of these sounds, rather than its semantic potential, or

its expressive or referential properties. However, these aforementioned sounds that occur during the

duration of the work are purely accidental or arbitrary, rather than organized or instructed by the

composer. For this reason, 4'33" fails to satisfy the necessary criteria of music being organised
sound. Regardless, the virtues of Cages 4'33" have been acclaimed by many. Through his

composition, Cage has supplied his audience with creative and innovative dimensions of

appreciating sound as an art form without it having to be music.

Works cited:

Blacking, John. How musical is man? Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2000, p.3.

Cobussen, Marcel. "What Is Music?" Thinking Sounds. N.p., 19 Dec. 2012. Web. 10 Apr. 2017.

Davies,Stephen."JohnCage's4'33".Isitmusic?" AustralasianJournalofPhilosophy.Web.10

Apr.2017.

Kania, Andrew. "Silent Music." The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 68.4 (2010): 15. Web.

10 Apr. 2017.

Levinson, Jerrold. "The Concept of Music." Music, Aesthetics and Metaphysics 26.2 (1990): pp.

267-78.
Priest, Eldritch. "Music Noise" in Boring Formless Nonsense: Experimental Music and The

Aesthetics of Failure, p. 132. London: Bloomsbury Publishing; New York: Bloomsbury Academic,

2013.