John Cage's (1912-92) 4'33 premiered on August 29, 1952, distilling the composer's philosophical explorations of silence into four minutes, thirty-three seconds of performed, charged silence. Elegantly, provocatively, the piece asked: what does silence sound like?
Cage's questions about the nature of silence and sound continue to reverberate decades later; this volume--the most comprehensive on the piece to date--brings together new theoretical writings and artistic works exploring Cage's composition. A wide-ranging list of contributors, contemporary and historical--from Merce Cunningham to Rage Against the Machine--weigh in on Cage's work alongside Cage's original scores and the composer's own subsequent engagements with his most famous piece.