Covering John Cage

[Oskar]

Today I spent a nice hour or so with an old friend, during which time she told me that she'd been to some sort of classical recital in London where one of the numbers the Orchestra "performed" was John Cage's 4"33.
This got me to thinking about who might do the piece justice.

I nominated Norwegian prog band Motorpsycho, my friend wanted either a version by Rammstein or by Justin Bieber.

For those who aren't aware of it, 4"33 is a piece where the musicians try to make absolutely NO noise for four minutes and thirty-three seconds.

So who would YOU like to do a cover of this lovely piece of music? Who can give 4"33 the best treatment?

[Oskar]

Sorry, it's really spelt 4'33" - anyway, here's the wikipedia entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4_33

[Antimon]

I guess you'd want more of them to be alive, but a Ramones cover with a proper fast "1234!" intro would be cool. I think they could get away with shortening it to, say, 2'11".

[abstraktor]

I think Sonic Youth (under their Ciccone Youth guise) did a cover of 4'33" way back in the day. (I think they claimed that they had sped it up!)

[pyrosonic]

These guys.(minus the backing band)

[audiodef]

Can someone please post a recording of it, so we can know what we're trying to cover here?

[elektro80]

[elektro80]

[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4′33″]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4′33″[/url]

[elektro80]

This is not really music, but concept art.. an installation using an orchestra.

Perhaps someone should try to make a rap version of it? Or a reggae version?

[nerdware]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4%E2%80%B233%E2%80%B3
Oops, elektro80 beat me to it. Nevermind. And he got the right link. Oops again!

[Muied Lumens]

4 minutes, 33 seconds = 273 seconds

-273 degrees C = absolute zero... well almost.

Ergo: In space nobody can hear you do a cover of John Cage's 4'33"

[elektro80]

This one is hilarious:

http://articles.cnn.com/2002-09-23/entertainment/uk.silence_1_peters-edition-nicholas-riddle-john-cage-trust?_s=PM:SHOWBIZ



A bizarre legal battle over a minute's silence in a recorded song has ended with a six-figure out-of-court settlement.

British composer Mike Batt found himself the subject of a plagiarism action for including the song, "A One Minute Silence," on an album for his classical rock band The Planets.

He was accused of copying it from a work by the late American composer John Cage, whose 1952 composition "4'33"" was totally silent.


On Monday, Batt settled the matter out of court by paying an undisclosed six-figure sum to the John Cage Trust.

Batt, who is best known in the UK for his links with the children's television characters The Wombles, told the Press Association: "This has been, albeit a gentlemanly dispute, a most serious matter and I am pleased that Cage's publishers have finally been persuaded that their case was, to say the least, optimistic.

"We are, however, making this gesture of a payment to the John Cage Trust in recognition of my own personal respect for John Cage and in recognition of his brave and sometimes outrageous approach to artistic experimentation in music."

Batt credited "A One Minute Silence" to "Batt/Cage."

Before the start of the court case, Batt had said: "Has the world gone mad? I'm prepared to do time rather than pay out. We are talking as much as £100,000 in copyright.

"Mine is a much better silent piece. I have been able to say in one minute what Cage could only say in four minutes and 33 seconds."

Batt gave a cheque to Nicholas Riddle, managing director of Cage's publishers Peters Edition, on the steps of the High Court, in London.

Riddle said: "We feel that honour has been settled.

"We had been prepared to make our point more strongly on behalf of Mr Cage's estate, because we do feel that the concept of a silent piece -- particularly as it was credited by Mr Batt as being co-written by "Cage" -- is a valuable artistic concept in which there is a copyright.

"We are nevertheless very pleased to have reached agreement with Mr Batt over this dispute, and we accept his donation in good spirit."

"A One Minute Silence" has now been released as part of a double A-side single.

[Antimon]

[elektro80]

[pyrosonic]

Here's what I have to say on the matter:

"
"

[pyrosonic]

I remember seeing Whitehouse (yeah I know) years ago and they played a silent piece that he said was "off our second record".
I wonder why they didn't
sue them?

[Acoustic Interloper]

We play musical chairs a couple of times during my autumn photoshop course, with students walking around to the music, then resuming someone else's work when the music stops. Last semester I forgot to bring the CD I wanted to use, so we improvised 4'33", making a game of figuring out novel ways of deciding when the music stopped. I was surprised that several of the students knew about the piece.

[audiodef]

[audiodef]

[mtvic]

An electro music stream concert that actually is not streamed .
Head phones only.

[mattb]

[Muied Lumens]

[pyrosonic]

Yet another victim of typecasting.