Reading Blog 2:

I really like the idea behind “4’33”. I feel like we often don’t appreciate silence enough and I think it's a very creative project. I especially like the idea of being able to focus on the distant sounds that go unnoticed most of the time. I would love to experience this piece played in a nature setting. Stopping and listening is something that everybody could benefit from doing more often and I believe this piece is a good reminder of that. When you just listen it's so much easier to relax yourself and focus only on the present. This reminds me of the silent meditations I used to do every morning in high school. It’s interesting to me that this piece was received with so much backlash. I understand that the piece is not musically complicated at all but I still really enjoy the idea behind it. Cage’s prediction about music becoming more about noise beyond just instruments is amazingly accurate. As we have moved into a more electronic world, artists are creating songs using just electronic noises. I find it fascinating that Cage had the insight to predict this. I find Cage’s deconstruction of traditional music to be very interesting. I also think it's very cool how “4’33”, even though it was just silence, still had the power to inspire other musical artists. This is one of the reasons I believe it's important to still consider the artistic value of “4’33”. Overall, I really enjoyed this reading. I had never heard of Cage or “4’33” before this article but now I would definitely like to experience this piece at a concert hall or in a natural setting.