I viewed part of Warhol’s Empire at the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art on Saturday. I wouldn’t want to sit through the whole thing, although I did sit through the Star Wars III (aye-yi-yi) fiasco so I have a sense of the butt-numbing futility I might experience.
But that’s not the point.
The point is that I think it would be lovely to grab a four minute and thirty-three second slice out of the beginning of the film and present it to the accompaniment of John Cage’s 4′33".
Most music is trivialized by attempts to describe it. ("The melody is announced by the flutes…") That’s not a problem with 4′33".
Here’s how one performance went: A tuxedoed performer came on stage,
sat at a grand piano, opened the lid, occasionally turned some music
pages but otherwise sat as quietly as possible for 4 minutes and 33
seconds, then rose, bowed and left. And that was it.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
i do a wicked cover of 4′33″. flawless.
saw cage do satie’s “vexations” in ‘77 in hartford cn. hypno-trance. sofun.
it took more than 18 hours. they rotated pianists, however.
http://www.af.lu.se/~fogwall/article3.html
quite mind altering. i could use some of that right about now.
Meanwhile, you might enjoy a taste of this…
http://jazz.discogs.com/release/442119
… or not. I was just thinking… Satie led to Sätty, Cosmic Bicycle, a film, music by Beaver and Krause. WTF? Beaver and Krause? Googled around. Mike Bloomfield and Gerry Mulligan? How bad could that be.