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Preface

We have been out of town all week, and I took no notes regarding music that came up. Rather than skip a week of blog I proffer this essay I wrote last year as part of an ongoing and probably never ending conversation with my long-time collaborator Neal Kosály-Meyer about John Cage. - kee

Text

OBJECT ALOUD

The object consists of four sheets of paper, two staples, a small sticker, and some black ink. The sheets each measure 18 inches by 12 inches. They are stacked, folded, and creased at the midpoints of their respective long sides, forming a booklet of sixteen pages, 9 inches by 12 inches. The staples are inserted along the line of the crease so that the points of each staple are folded together on the inside. The midpoints of each staple are about 2 and 7/8 inches from their respective paper edges, and thus approximately 6 and 1/4 inches apart from each other.

The paper sheets are of neither the same stock nor color. The sheet that forms the outside of the booklet is of heavier stock than the other three, and is a different color of cream, possessing a slight greenish tinge. The three inner sheets are of lighter stock and color.

The first of the sixteen pages, being formed of one side of one half of the heavier, greenish-tinged cream sheet, has printing on it. Three rectangles are drawn thereon, one inside the other. The outside rectangle is drawn with a thicker line than the two inside rectangles and its dimensions are 6 and 7/8 inches by 9 1/2 inches, almost centered upon the page, matching short sides to short sides and long sides to long sides, but skewed ever so slightly toward the stapled edge and also, if the stapled edge is on the left, toward the top. The two inner rectangles are drawn with thinner lines, the middle rectangle’s lines paralleling those of the outer by about 1/32 of an inch, and the innermost’s paralleling those of the middle by about 1/16 of an inch.

With the booklet in view, staples on the left, an ornate emblem is seen, 3 and 3/8 inches from left to right at its center and 7/8 inches from top to bottom at its center, positioned about 2 and 1/8 inches from the top of the page and 4 and 7/16 inches from the left side. Within this emblem is printed an enclosure of solid black ink, within which solid black enclosure the letters EDITION PETERS appear as though stenciled. Immediately below the emblem No. 6777a is printed.

About 1 and 3/4 inches below the emblem, in capital letters 1 and 9/16 inches tall, occupying nearly the entire width inside the innermost rectangle, JOHN CAGE is printed in ornate letters, outlined on their right sides by thin lines so that they appear to stand out from the page. Centered horizontally 1 and 5/16 inches below these letters 4' 33" is printed in numerals 9/16 of an inch tall, and an inch and a half below these numerals, in a smaller font, (Original Version in Proportional Notation).

The inside page of the cover is blank. Opposite this, on the first page of the lighter-stocked paper, two paragraphs are presented concerning the history of the object, and of its various published versions. The paragraphs are attributed to Irwin Kremen of Durham, North Carolina. Below that, 1 and 3/8 inches from the bottom edge, is a copyright notice.

On the next page, toward the bottom, at about the position of the lower staple, and aligned on the left 1 and 7/8 inches from the edge of the page, there are three lines of text in a hand-inked type font, the last being in the style of a signature: 

4'33"

FOR ANY INSTRUMENT OR COMBINATION OF INSTRUMENTS

JohnCage

On the next page, in a similar vertical position to those three lines but only 1 and 1/8 inches from the staple fold is printed FOR IRWIN KREMEN in the hand-inked type font.

On the left side of the next page, were the page turned as the pages of a book are turned, is printed 1 PAGE =7 INCHES =56", while on the right page are two straight, vertical lines, parallel with the long edge of the page, each 10 inches long. The two lines are 1 inch and 4 and 3/4 inches, respectively, from the crease. The top of each line is 5/8 inches from the top of the page. Above the left line appears 60” (the underline is in the original). The left edge of the number is aligned with the left line. At the bottom of the right line, printed so as to be properly up-side up were the page rotated 90 degrees clockwise, is 30", aligned on the left (as so rotated) with the end of the right line.

On the next page another vertical line appears, very like the leftmost line described above, but 1 and 5/8 inches from the left edge of the page, complete with its own 60” in hand-inked type font. The next page is blank. This is the middle of the booklet, and here the folded over points of the two staples can be seen.

On the next page another vertical line is found, similar this time to the first right-most line referenced above. It is 5 and 1/2 inches from the left side of the page. At its bottom, rather than 30”, appears 2'33". On the right page, 7/8 inches to the right of the staple fold, appears a line identical otherwise to the first left-most line, complete with 60” in hand-inked type font.

Another vertical line is printed on the left of the next page, like unto the first right-most line, complete with its own unique inscription, 1'40", at the bottom. However, at the top of the line, ending about 1/4 of an inch from the top end of that line, appears additional printing in hand-inked type font: 8-52; N.Y.C. The right page is blank.

Two rectangles are printed on the next page, corresponding to the outer and middle rectangles that appear on the cover. Toward the top of the inside of these rectangles is another emblem, essentially identical to the emblem on the cover. Immediately below this new emblem appears JOHN CAGE, in a significantly smaller and less ornate font than on the cover. Below this, still within the two rectangles, appear two columns of left-aligned type, in a smaller font yet. At the top of the left-most column is seen (continued) followed by, each on its own line, lists of words and phrases, in alphabetical order, starting with MUSIC FOR PIANO 69-84 and ending with WORKS FOR PIANO, PREPARED PIANO AND TOY PIANO. At the bottom right, just outside the outermost rectangle, and almost touching it, 11/06. The right page, being once again of the greenish-tinged heavier stock, is blank.

Two more columns of listed words and phrases are found on the back cover, topped with the same emblem as hereinbefore noted, and JOHN CAGE as on the previous page. However, unlike on the front cover, there are no rectangles. The first column begins 101 and the last column ends (continued inside). To the right of the last column, aligned with the bottom of the last line of text, is a printed bar-code. On the bottom left of the page the afore-mentioned small sticker is affixed. Another bar-code is printed on the sticker.

Now we know, or we presume to know, or we simply presume, several things about the object. First, it is intended to be a musical score. That's what Peters is in the business of. We regard John Cage as, among other things, a composer of music. The object is referred to as a score in the paragraphs attributed to Irwin Kremen and by general repute among those possessed of even a cursory acquaintance with John Cage's compositions. In fact, this may be his most widely known musical composition, having become as good as epithetic: "John Cage, who wrote the silent piece." Although the object itself is inexplicit on this point, there is no useful reason to dispute or comment further upon the fact, hereinafter regarded as stipulated between us, that the object is a musical score.

The bulk of musical scores, whether published by Peters or by other music publishers, are, to a significant level of detail, self-explanatory to those who happen to read music, at least as to those European works written during the last several centuries and as to those works culturally adjacent thereto. This one, clearly, is not. We find in it no discernable hint of any aspect of traditional Western music notation at a granularity finer than "page". We accept, reluctantly, that in such explanations as proportional notation, 1 PAGE =7 INCHES =56”, and 1’40", etc., the various single and double hash marks are understood to refer to minutes and seconds of clock time, rather than to minutes and seconds of arc, or feet and inches, or any other such specialized notations.

Among those with some knowledge of John Cage's practice in regard to the use of proportional notation it is understood that the “proportions” in question are proportions of measured clock time as scaled to measured distances on pages, and that the vertical lines indicate start and stop times of those durations. In this case the six vertical lines are understood to represent three durations - the first, third, and fifth such lines, all labeled 60", counted as they are encountered in the usual Western order of left-to-right reading, represent start times (60" being equivalent to 00"), while the second, fourth, and sixth such lines, each with its unique clock time indication, are the stop times. The measured linear distance between each sequential pair of lines is proportional to the duration of clock time indicated, as scaled by the explanation 1 PAGE =7 INCHES =56", i.e. each page is considered to have so many pertinent inches of linear distance, and so many inches of linear distance left to right is equal to so many seconds of clock time. However, the complications arising from reading such precise distances by eye, not to mention the impertinent page margins, make this problematic, so we’ll take his word for it.

That's it really. All other aspects of how we might interpret this musical score are left to us and/or, heaven forfend, tradition.

The score presents three durations of time. Those durations are all the explicit content it has. I am free to treat them in whatever way I wish. I can treat them as ordeals, geometrical expanses, sample sizes, flavors, empty containers, or zones of peril. If I consider them to be empty containers, for example, I might fill them, upend them, or fill and then upend them. I might use them as a mendicant would their hat. I might wear them as hats. I could bang on them. I could deposit them in the municipal recycle bins.

I might seek help and ask what others have done or thought. There has been no shortage of explanations, but here are some of the loudest.

First, “silence” is what it is about.

OK fine, I get it. But any proper Cage enthusiast will promptly follow this up with the story about Cage in an anechoic chamber realizing that there is no such thing as silence. Great.

Second, “Zen” is what it is about.

Now, as Zen has been propounded informally to me, to really “get it” in any meaningful sense would require a wholesale personal spiritual re-configuration. I, in my current, unwashed, spiritual state, am incapable, unworthy. I must jettison my old self and remake it utterly in the guise of another me that isn't me. I can't experience it, properly, as me, now, but I might be able to, someday, if I weren't me. Fuck that.

Third, “environmental and audience sounds” are what it is about.

Now this works for me fine as a description of someone else's experience of a performance. But, as a performer, I abjure any desire to persuade another person toward pre-articulable inner experiences, be it this or another, and more to the point, this solution treats the score as little more than a friendly suggestion to take a moment and listen to the pretty birds. I’m sorry, but the score doesn’t seem friendly to me at all.

For me, the most salient residue of the musical score object at hand is its thunderclap emptiness, loud and clear. It is an emptiness of such immanence as would wither upon explanation, become a wisp more ephemeral than a debunked rumor of a “’-jum!” in a breeze that may have blown by.

 To be honest. I want nothing. I desire no correct solution, no authoritative explanation. The utterness of this score object’s emptiness demands that I accept it as unmediated emptiness itself, naked and raw.

In February of 2016 Karen Eisenbrey posted in her band-name blog “Square Pig in a Round Hole” her comments upon Nothing Sounds Good in the following terms: “. . . 2) even absence is music; 3) everything on the menu is what I don't want; 4) I prefer the void.” I’ll buy that.

There is no silence here.

There is no ambient sound here.

There is no Zen here.

Here emptiness is emptiness alone with me. I and it and nothing less.

Keith Eisenbrey, July 17, 2022, Seattle