Chula Vista

If it were "played" in an anechoic chamber there'd be nothing. Nada. Zilch. Silence.

No sound whatsoever.

Case closed.

__________________

“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

Rowan Weaver

I've always gone with the idea that if any sounds are pointed at and called music, they are music. 4'33'' is kind of exactly that. It's pointing at the sounds around it and saying "that is music" and I don't see why I would disagree.


No, to be played there would still have to be the "instruments", and while normally I would say that that would be the audience, as that is what is listened for, it is at least stated to be a "piano piece", meaning piano and pianist. If it were performed in an anechoic chamber, sure the echos wouldn't be there making it near inaudible, but the original sounds made simply by the pianist breathing, shifting weights, etc would still be there.
And if you played any music in space through an mp3 player and speakers, there would be no sound. And I'm pretty sure the speakers' diaphragms wouldn't work right anyway... but that's not the point.

Your argument seems to be that the music is dictated by the instructions given, which can exist without the need for sound, but oftentimes music isn't appreciated for technical merit, rather temperament or texture, which could not exist as concepts without sound. Yes music can exist without any apparent thought towards the actual sound and still be exceptional (Conlon Nancarrow), but the opposite can be true as well (Merzbow I think. I don't listen much. Not since I missed a fire alarm because I thought it was part of the song...).
And to say that, simply because 4'33'' is reliant totally on sound to profess its philosophy, rather than expressing itself through current post-Pythagorean equivalencies, dismisses a lot of what sets music apart from other media.

I'd never heard of the anechoic chamber though. That thing's cool.



I dunno, what's sexier than the sounds of sex? *Plays loud amateur porn videos converted to FLAC in bed*

Chula Vista

We have one at my work. Being inside of it is freaky. It's makes some people wig out a bit.

__________________

“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

Plankton

I used to spend time in the one at Federal Signal when I worked there. I was into sensory deprivation chambers and practicing Zen Buddhism back then too.

As far as 4'33", it can be considered music, since the world around us has constant actions, and reactions, which in turn create noise, in which inherently becomes a type of music to the listener.

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See location...

grindy

There is no silence in an anechoic chamber. There is no silence anywhere.
That's what gave Cage the idea for 4'33'' in the first place.

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A smell of petroleum prevails throughout.

Zhanteimi

Well, if somebody wanked out an essay about it, then that's canon!

Oriphiel

You know what I've learned from this topic? The 4'33" is the perfect way to turn any musical discussion into a boring and drawn-out debate.

Rowan Weaver

I guess that's cause it's the debate in and of itself. What it is is a profession on what it believes to be music, so it's just the perfect analogue for either side of the discussion. *shrug*

Oriphiel

Pretty much. It's just one of those things that gets people entrenched in their beliefs, and rather than compromise they just sort of repeat "I think it's music" or "I don't think it's music" over and over. That's been the last twenty or so pages of this thread.

Machine

Well it seems that were back on the topic of 4'33" again, so as grindy put it, the purpose of the piece is to hear the sounds around us all that ambiance no matter where you are, and show the real beauty in between the notes. So I come back to the TedTalks with Mark Applebaum I posted some twenty pages back. Maybe the wrong question is "is it music", when maybe we should ask "is it interesting?".

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boost my ego

listen to me stroke my delay pedal

ever wanted to hear death grips songs... but they're acoustic? me neither.