John Cage - 4'33”

 Initially it felt a little silly, choosing this particular piece of John Cage for a listening report. But if we keep in mind John Cage's ideology on the purpose of music, the experience becomes infinitely more valuable:

“Music is a purposeful purposelessness, or purposeless play, but this play is an affirmation of life – not an attempt to bring order out of chaos, not to suggest improvements in creation, but simply to wake up to the very life we are living, which is so excellent once one gets one's mind and desires out the way and lets it act of its own accord.”

 

            With this philosophy in mind (and the YouTube upload by the Berliner Philharmoniker playing in the background for good measure), my listening experience with this piece ended up a lot more personal than expected; in fact, it left me completely alone with my thoughts and the impulses surrounding them: The creaking of the wooden ceiling, the faint sounds of the TV downstairs, the occasional cough and sniff from the audience in the recorded performance of the piece; it all served to make manifest John Cage's seemingly paradoxical doctrine of purposeful purposelessness. This piece, in spite of ostensibly asking for your undivided attention, mercilessly leaves you alone with only yourself and your usual surroundings, which, in my case, caused me to pay attention to them far more than I do usually.

            This is – to me – precisely what makes this piece so intriguing: The fact that something so seemingly simplistic can beget such an interesting scenario – one in which you can go so far as to ask yourself why sitting in complete silence can feel so unusual – whereupon you may come to realize that – also in accordance with John Cage's perspective – there is no such thing as complete silence. Even locked in a sensory deprivation chamber, you have your own heartbeat – perhaps the ultimate “affirmation of life,” as John Cage would perhaps put it – to keep you company. This piece made me keenly aware of that.