John Cage - Sound in Art

As found on Pbs.org, "In 1952, David Tudor sat down in front of a piano for four minutes and thirty-three seconds and did nothing. The piece 4′33” written by John Cage, is possibly the most famous and important piece in twentieth century avant-garde. 4′33” was a distillation of years of working with found sound, noise, and alternative instruments. In one short piece, Cage broke from the history of classical composition and proposed that the primary act of musical performance was not making music, but listening." The video of the piece being performed by William Marx can be found here: 4'33" I am not in total favor of this piece per se. I like the idea Cage has of having music being common sounds itself, but I don't like the complete silence. Silence to me, is not music. There has to be something to listen to. But some of his other works are respectable and interesting.