The Anger of Compassion

Quiet, please, the music is about to start

From "Radio 3 to air Cage's 'silence,' " BBC News UK Edition:

The BBC Symphony Orchestra is to give a performance of composer John Cage's seminal piece 4'33" - nearly five minutes of complete silence.

BBC Radio 3 is to broadcast the entire composition live, even having to switch off its emergency system which cuts in when there is apparent silence.

The late avant-garde composer "wrote" the piece in 1952.

The performance takes place on Friday at London's Barbican Centre, as part of a weekend celebrating Cage's work.

TV viewers will also be able to watch the event when BBC Four broadcasts the concert, which also features works that music lovers will be able to hear.

Cage's reasoning for composing 4'33" was to demonstrate that "wherever we are what we hear mostly is noise".

You know they're out there, crippled with envy, those who delight in cutting down the giants among us, those who enjoy nothing more than mocking true greatness. Did you, for example, catch that snippy line about "works that music lovers will be able to hear"? Oh, and at the very beginning, that reference to Cage's "seminal" piece? Eh? As if 4'33" were the product of what my fellow Marines might refer to as a "dishonorable discharge," if you get my drift.

I am a classical guitarist. I'm very concerned about enlarging the guitar repertoire. I was warned about transcribing 4'33" for the guitar: I was told that I'd be laboring in obscurity and in vain, that the guitar just wasn't the appropriate instrument for that work, that no one would ever hear it.

But no, this Cage masterpiece had to be rendered for the guitar. So I've spent years on the effort. It's been difficult, it's been frustrating...for example, getting the rhythm just right is crucial to this piece. Especially the rests.

But I was inspired by, among others, the great Segovia, who transcribed so much Bach for the guitar; by John Cage himself, of course. By Marcel Marceau.

You know, Varese and Stockhausen groped toward this--but John Cage found perfection, pure form. I'm intimidated every time I play this piece on my guitar. But I'm inspired as well.

So I persevered, and it's been worth every bit of effort. Now, I'm proud of my transcription of 4'33". Listening to it on the guitar, I think you'll find yourself wondering if the guitar hadn't been Cage's original choice of instrument all along. And I play it all the time: it's become, without doubt, the strongest piece in my repertoire. Now it's available for all guitarists, everywhere. I've published my transcription, below, with my own fingering indications and tablature.

My next project? Actually I'm going to transcribe the same piece for diatonic harmonica. I'd like to have 4'33" available for the cello...but I'm already playing it on the harmonica all the time, so that comes next. And I don't play the cello.

TRANSCRIPTION OF 4'33" FOR THE GUITAR:

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Posted by Craig Ceely at January 15, 2004 08:06 PM