What can you hear in silence? In this exploration of sound, host of the podcast "Twenty Thousand Hertz" Dallas Taylor tells the story of arguably the most debated musical composition in recent history -- composer John Cage's iconic piece 4'33" -- and invites you to take notice of the soundscape around you. Watch to the end to experience a performance of 4'33".This episode originally aired on August 12, 2020.For a chance to give your own TED Talk, fill out the Idea Search Application: ted.com/ideasearch.Interested in learning more about upcoming TED events? Follow these links:TEDNext: ted.com/futureyouTEDSports: ted.com/sportsTEDAI Vienna: ted.com/ai-viennaTEDAI San Francisco: ted.com/ai-sf Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Full Episode
You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hu. What can you hear when you take a moment to be silent? In this Archive Talk, host of the podcast 20,000 Hertz, Dallas Taylor, takes us on an exploration of sound, telling the story of arguably the most debated musical composition in recent history.
composer John Cage's iconic piece, 433. Through this story, Dallas invites us all to take notice of what's around us when we truly stop to listen and asks, what is silence anyway? Please note there is an intentional long period of no talking, four minutes and 33 seconds to be exact, at the end of this talk. We welcome you to stick around and just witness what you hear around you.
I think about sound all the time. I'm a sound designer and I host the podcast 20,000 Hertz. It's all about the world's most recognizable and interesting sounds. But I think this is the perfect time to talk about silence because what I've come to understand is that there is no such thing as silence. And the person who opened my mind to this idea is one of the most influential composers in history.
John Cage has made an impact on artists in many genres, from avant-garde musicians to modern dance to pop music. Right now, we're listening to his 1948 piece called In a Landscape. This version was recorded in 1994 by Stephen Drury. This piece is actually not very typical of John Cage's writing. He's more known for his innovations and avant-garde techniques.
But despite his reputation, no one was prepared for what he did in 1952 when he created the most daring piece of his career. It was called Four Minutes and Thirty-Three Seconds, and it was a piece that some critics even refused to call music. because for the entire duration of the piece, the performer plays nothing at all.
Well, to be technical, the performer is actually playing rest, but to the audience, it looks like nothing's happening. John Cage's 433 was performed for the first time in the summer of 1952 by renowned pianist David Tudor. It was at the Maverick Concert Hall in Woodstock, New York. This is a beautiful wooden building with huge openings to the outdoors.
So David Tudor walked out on stage, sat down at the piano, then closed the piano lid. He then sat in silence, only moving to open and close the piano lid between each of the three movements. After the time was up, he got up and walked off the stage. The audience had no idea what to think. It made people wonder if Cage is even taking his career seriously.
A close friend even wrote to him, begging that he not turn his career into a joke. John Cage had, well, if you could call it, composed a piece of music that really challenged some very established ideas about music composition. It's something that musicians still debate today. To understand just what John Cage was thinking, let's back up to the 1940s.
Back then, John Cage was making a name for himself composing for the prepared piano. To make music like this, John Cage would put objects inside the piano, between the strings, things you just find lying around, like screws, tape, and rubber erasers. So now you've transformed the piano from a tonal instrument with high and low pitches into a collection of unique sounds.
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