John Cage's Number 33 Analysis

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When watching the video of John Cage's 4 "33", I was first confused on what William Marx was doing. I watched the video several times, to gain my focus on what he was doing. Finally, I understood why he was just sitting there and not playing the piano. Truthfully others probably have thought the same thing that I did when I watched the composition. William Marx sat down and opened the top cover of piano and set a timer, he never struck a key on the keyboard through three different movements. I visualized that Marx was playing a piece by Mozart, but I knew that was not what the piece about. I believe that John Cage's 4 "33" is about silence and possibly time. The first value that I think is significant to the composition is silence. When I think of the word silence, nothingness comes to mind. What I mean by nothingness is no noise; you hear not one person or any other kind noise around you. …show more content…
When William Marx sat at the piano time continued to pass on, even when sitting in silence. Silence serves time as a utilitarian relationship. As William Marx sits at the piano, he is in control of the silence but does not have any control over time. The perspective of the story is ethnocentric because when William Marx is at the piano he is in control of his silence, but he cannot stop time. Time will continue to go on day after day, not one person on Earth can stop it. Silence is something that people have a choice of doing. What I mean by that is if you are sitting in the dark and making no noise, you are choosing to do that.
I decided to do more research about John Cage's 4 "33". From what I found, the composition does not mean what I thought it said. The performer is not sitting in silence at the piano but is listening to the sounds of the audience and other surrounding noises. John Cage wants people to know that there is no such thing as being in "silence" you can take pleasure in all the sounds around

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