(Forgot to post after I finished it)
John Cage’s approach to music is definitely one that requires a fair amount of thought. When we first discussed 4’33 in class, I was in disbelief and very confused, much like the patrons of the performance we watched in class. However, the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. People don’t often sit down just to enjoy the sounds of nature unless they’re told to, and 4’33 is exactly that, at least for those who manage to catch it. Other young people’s positive reactions to John Cage’s exhibition in Barcelona, “The Anarchy of Silence,” versus the crowd’s reactions to David Tudor’s performance of 4 '33 in 1952 really highlight the generational gap in interpretations of music, especially Cage’s work. Young adults who have been exposed to a looser definition of art and music for a majority of their lives seem more eager and willing to explore the implications of Cage’s works as thought pieces, over more seasoned enjoyers of music who tend to write it off as stupid or a gimmick. The way Kyle Gann described 4’33 as “an act of framing, of enclosing environmental and unintended sounds in a moment of attention in order to open the mind to the fact that all sounds are music,” feels very accurate and that quote honestly helped me understand the purpose of the piece a lot more. It’s hard to agree with an out-of-the-box art piece when you don’t understand the purpose or thought behind it, but I can’t decide if explaining the thought process behind it ruins the novelty of it.
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