Becoming-Music in 4 Minutes and 33 Seconds
Dorothea Hines · Journal of literature and art studies · 2016
In accordance to Langerian aesthetic theory, Mark Campbell (1992) concludes that Cage's 4'33 " (1952) is by no means aesthetic music.I argue the antithesis: Cage's 4'33" satisfies Langerian aesthetic theory, and is indeed "aesthetic" music.Cage does something more: he satisfies Langerian aesthetic theory, yet he is not limited by it.He does not simply create music, nor does he offer listeners a musical space.He creates what Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari (1987) call a line of becoming that passes between music making and a musical space.In 4 minutes and 33 seconds of silence, Cage presents a sense of emptiness and numbness felt simultaneously with fullness and explosion.In what appears to be stillness, the listener experiences the flux of movement; what appears to be devoid of depth, is filled with complexities.4'33" embraces chance, uncertainty, and the unknown; it is an experimental process; it is becoming-music in 4 minutes and 33 seconds.