Gann, a composer, considers Cage’s 4’33”
—a performance piece in which the pianist never plays a note—from just about every possible angle, explaining how it can be simultaneously “one of the most misunderstood pieces of music ever written and yet, at times, one of the avant-garde’s best-understood as well.” (To illustrate that latter point, Gann rounds up many of the descriptions of the piece included in Cage’s obituaries after his death in 1999.) Following a biographical summary of Cage’s early musical development, Gann considers the various influences that got him thinking about “silence, meditation, and environmental sound,” from 20th-century composer Erik Satie back to the medieval mystic Meister Eckhart, moving on to a sensible reconstruction of the piece’s development—down to telling details like the fact that its length is roughly the same as the temporal space on a 12-inch 78 rpm record. Though Gann clearly respects Cage and 4’33”
, he doesn’t worship either blindly, and that critical appreciation makes his argument that this is a radical “act of listening,” not a provocative stunt, all the more compelling. Photos and illus. throughout. (Mar.)
