Four Minutes thirty three seconds, is the proper way to refer to John Cages's avant garde soundtrack. The sheet music is composed for any instrument and is simply noted for the performer to NOT play the instrument.
Some call this 4 minutes thirty three seconds of silence but it really isn't. Its supposed to force the listener to hear only the environment. In 1952 this was some crazy art house stuff. Imagine if you will the hoi paloi sitting down and listening to themselves swallow. Awkward perhaps but art is art for arts sake so who are we to question?
Many are unaware that the composure John Cage was friends with Robert Rauschenberg who's 'art' was blank canvases. These two must have been a laugh fest but in simplistic terms pretty cutting edge.
MOMA now owns this important musical manuscript “consisting of just three folded sheets of almost blank onionskin paper” that translates to nothing. There has been no announcement of the cost of this work or if it was acquired.
Imagine if you will the crowd the fist time this was presented. In "Woodstock, NY in the ’50s in an open-air auditorium. Following the musical notation — 4 minutes and 33 seconds of pure silence — the pianist did nothing, while the audience listened to wind, the rain, and their own confused muttering, becoming hyperaware of their environment"
Here it is performed live… crazy man
Warning DO NOT turn up your speakers