The man who famously treated ‘silence’ as a sound. Is there actually silence? I would say no, there is sound present even when are quiet, you hear the sound of ambience. John Cage was a American composer, an artist who mastered the craft of non-standard use of musical instruments. He is famously known for his 4’33” composition.

On August 29, 1952,  pianist David Tudor in Maverick Concert Hall, near Woodstock, New York performed “4’33”. It has been called the “silent piece,”its main purpose as per John cage was that there is no silence, sounds are present everywhere. During the performance, there were sounds of raindrops pattering on rooftop, people walking in and out, winds stirring. John cage was of the view that people didn’t know how to listen and what they thought of silence were accidental sounds.

It wasn’t until in 1961 after publication of Silence that Cage’s music (collection of John’s lectures and poems) that found a place in few of the minds of American audience and understood the concept of 4’33”. People were riot and thought his piece of work a bizarre, stupid and even ridiculous. Like it or not, Cage will have a presence in our lives for a long time, in form of his work, his theory and his compositions.

References: