In John Cage’s musical composition titled 4’33” (four minutes and thirty-three seconds), what is the music? 4’33” (Links to an external site.) Group of answer choices: There is no music. The music only exists on the sheet music itself. The music occurs from the tasks the performer completes, audience members shifting in their seats, laughter, papers crumpling, etc. It is the space and what happens in it that creates the sound/music. John Cage composed 4’33” as a conceptual piece. It is a silent composition where the performer does not play any traditional musical instruments. The music is created by the ambient sounds that occur during the duration of the piece.
The Correct Answer and Explanation is:
The correct answer is:
The music occurs from the tasks the performer completes, audience members shifting in their seats, laughter, papers crumpling, etc. It is the space and what happens in it that creates the sound/music.
John Cage’s 4’33” is one of the most famous conceptual works in modern music. The piece is comprised of three movements with a total performance time of exactly four minutes and thirty-three seconds, during which the performer does not play any instrument. Instead, the score instructs the musician to remain silent. The composition, therefore, is not about traditional sound-making but about the sounds that naturally occur in the environment during the performance. This includes the sounds produced by the audience, such as shifting in their seats, breathing, or even ambient noises in the concert hall like the rustling of paper or laughter.
Cage’s 4’33” challenges conventional notions of music and composition. The silence in the piece is purposeful and not simply an absence of sound but rather a call for the audience to actively engage with the environment’s natural acoustics. Cage was influenced by the concept of “found sound” and the idea that sound exists everywhere in our surroundings, not just from musical instruments. By bringing attention to the ambient noises around us, Cage invited listeners to reconsider what constitutes music.
The work is also a philosophical statement on the nature of music, listening, and perception. It suggests that music is not solely confined to the notes played by an instrument, but can also arise from the silence and from the unpredictability of the world around us. In this sense, the performance of 4’33” is a unique experience each time, depending on the environment and the audience, making it an ever-changing piece of art.
