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I see that somebody wrote a book about 4’33”. It would be cool if the book were completely empty, but I have a horrible feeling that there are actual words in it. For one thing, the Amazon listing says it’s 272 pages and retails for $24. If it were really what I hope it was, it would be 433 pages long and retail for $4.33, a low enough price that it might actually sell a few copies as a gag.

P.S. A few years ago Bob and Mitzi, I think, performed 4’33” at the gong show. The crowd totally didn’t get it. After about 30 seconds, everybody was getting completely uncomfortable, there were shouts of “Gong Them!,” and the judges duly complied. Cage was ahead of his time, and he’s ahead of our time too.

6 thoughts on “This page intentionally left blank

  1. Our 4'33" was about as popular as our poor rendition of Who's on First?. It wasn't nearly as shocking as Mitzi's literally burning dollar bills collected from the audience in her dot-bomb riff.

    You'll be happy to know we have a conceptual Gong Show act waiting in the wings for 2011. We may even perform it in (my laughable and Mitzi's excellent) French.

  2. 4'33'' is way too long in today's fast-paced world. But I think a greatly edited version, perhaps 2'16.5'' or 1'8.25'', might be very well received.

    I used to have an LP edition of 4'33'', and I would play it on 78 rpm. It was way better that way.

  3. 4'33" is by far my favorite Cage piece.
    Sadly, other post-modern pieces get more play on FM 'classical' stations' avante garde programmes.

    The beautiful thing is that with deft use of the volume control, those other, discordant, atonal pieces can be transformed into a serenely harmonious rendition of 4'33".

    A detailed analysis of 4'33" such as you describe, along the lines of the classic, and much imitated, blank book /The Wit and Wisdom of Spiro T Agnew/ would be much appreciated. Perhaps we could interest Moleskine in a range of titles?

    :-)

  4. During the John Cage Birthday Broadcast on WKCR about 10 years ago, DJ Andrew Rudman (now known as Smilin' Andy Bean) performed a version of 4'33" arranged for the flute.

  5. The book having 272 pages is probably significant, Mr. Gelman – 4 minutes, thirty three seconds adds up to 273 seconds.

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