An unusual single is making a run for the top spot on the UK pop charts this Christmas season: it's John Cage's 4'33", still one of the most iconic--and controversial--works to ever emerge out of American experimentalism.
Published in 1952, the piece is comprised four minutes and 33 seconds of no playing, separated into three movements. (However, as Cage wrote in his performance notes, "the work may be performed by any instrumentalist(s) and the movements may last any lengths of time.")
Recorded in a London studio by an eclectic group of 40 musicians that include Billy Bragg, Imogen Heap, The Kooks, and the members of Orbital, the 2010 Cage single project, called "Cage Against the Machine," is meant as something of a repudiation of the current British pop music charts. Proceeds from the single are to be split between several charities, including a suicide prevention group, music and music-therapy focused organizations, and the British Tinnitus Association.
Though Cage Against the Machine started as a lark with a Facebook group of five members, it's now blown up into a global sensation. "Your experience today," said an organizer to the assembled musicians about to record, "is about being in the here and now..music is made up of more than just formal notes and arrangements. We're stopping and appreciating the space between things, the unintentional sounds that make up our world."
Check out the video of this 4'33" recording session on the Guardian's website.
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by Anastasia Tsioulcas
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