What would be the most perfect piece of music to hear in a library? Surely, John Cage's 4'33", that famous piece celebrating the sound of ....
.
.
.well, silence. The sounds of the environment around you.
Did you know it has been performed on orchestra? Yes indeed, here is a YouTube recording of
4’33”by John Cage, performed live at the Barbican
[orchestral version]
But then, we thought, what about all our wonderful electronic resources? Can we find anything there? Oh, you'd be surprised by what we found!
- For example, there's Floraleda Sacchi, harpist:- we found her interpretation on Naxos Music Library.
- Then we found a video of an organ interpretation on Alexander Street, a ProQuest Company.
- Or, if you need some commentary, start here on Wiley Online Library: "This is the piece that everyone here has come to experience: the challenges to copyright of John Cage's 4′33″ - Seymour - 2013 - Legal Studies - Wiley Online Library
- And of course you'll also find plenty of information on Oxford Music Online (aka Grove Music).
- And - wait for it - the publisher, Peters, has made an i-phone app for it!
We'd love to stage the first live library performance of 4'33". We'd surely make it into the Guinness Book of Records, if our patrons would only sit perfectly still for four minutes, thirty-three seconds! Sadly, there are copyright issues. Yes, even for silence.
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