4'33"

Tonight I heard John Cage's work 4'33" for the first time since I heard about it in art school in Dunedin. It is odd that all musicians and artists know this work but most of the general public don't (and that included me until I went to art school).

This is from the Wikipedia entry on on John Cage:
Cage is perhaps best known for his 1952 composition 4′33″, the three movements of which are performed without a single note being played. The content of the composition is meant to be perceived as the sounds of the environment that the listeners hear while it is performed,^[8] rather than merely as four minutes and 33 seconds of silence,^[9] and the piece became one of the most controversial compositions of the 20th century .

Well, it is still controversial. A man sitting near me hissed the pianist when he left the stage and some people left soon after. On the other hand, a Slovenian artist told me after the concert that she had come to this particular concert just to hear this work. Her son said there is a cover band who filmed themselves playing 4'33" and put it on YouTube. They played it fast so it only lasted half the time!