Thursday, May 21, 2009

4'33"

Today, in my classical music class, we listened to John Cage's 1952 "composition," 4'33". The reason I place the word composition in quotations is because the piece is four minutes and 33 seconds of silence. He didn't compose anything. He wanted the silence--or the daily sounds going on around you--to be the music. So we listened to some jack hammering, creaky desks, birds chirping, etc.

Cage was a very strange composer (he was big on this thing called "prepared piano," which is where you stick random things in between the strings in order to produce weird ass noises).

I don't know how I feel about the avant-garde, experimental composers yet, I'm still deciding...

1 comment:

Bdubba said...

I took an art class (can't remember the name - just know I had to have one...). It was on Thursday afternoons in a big performance auditorium (read big cushy chairs that you could easily slink down in) where the instructor would turn the lights off and project pictures of various works of art and we'd discuss it. Some things were very interesting and many others I just didn't get but I was grateful for the exposure. I think that is what college is all about. I am glad to see you are enjoying all of it! :)