Music for Marcel Duchamp (1947)/Music for Amplified Toy Pianos (1960)...

AMG Review of Music for Marcel Duchamp (1947)/Music for Amplified Toy Pianos (1960)...

"Blue" Gene Tyranny
All Music Guide

Wonderful performances of these modern classics by composer/performers Juan Hidalgo, Marchetti, Simonetti, and Stratos. 4'33," with its alternative realization 0'00" (Solo to Be Performed in Any Way by Anyone, 4'33" No. 2), is perhaps the most elegantly simple and controversial in all of Cage's works. The score consists of the notations I. Tacet, II. Tacet, III. Tacet. The seeming intent is to create an action that will give a sense of three moments in time, and will also make the presence of an undisturbed, eternal silence felt; not a negative act, but an affirmation of that element necessary for any meaningful sound gesture, an awareness of silence. David Tudor first realized this piece, quietly opening and closing the keyboard lid of a piano to create a performance of 4 minutes and 33 seconds duration, and thus giving the piece the title by which it is best known. It can, of course, be performed for any duration, and has been. The version written for Yoko Ono and Toshi Ichiyanagi elucidates this experience further through a kind of non-clock time, or eternal presence, and indicating that the piece can also have the other extreme of infinite compression or loudness. There are probably as many reactions, meanings, and interpretations in linear time (e.g., a "blank wall" on which the mind involuntarily projects itself) of 4'33" as there are possible realizations. And that will always be the undisturbed, elusive, quite timeless beauty of this piece. Aside from all these considerations, it is charmingly warm and disarming to simply share this peaceful moment (unselfconsciously) with the rest of the audience.