John Cage 4'33"

[herschelkrustov]

I am very much interested in the wind band arrangement of this piece, but any copy of the score will do. Thank you.

[daphnis]

Very much under copyright around the world. You'll have to purchase/rent it.

[herschelkrustov]

Thank you for the heads up, I will look into that.

[Starrmark]

I've often wondered whether the claim of copyright on John Cage's 4'33" would withstand a court challenge. After all, the "work" can hardly pass the test of "the threshhold of originality." When Cage "wrote" 4'33" in the late Forties, silence had already been done to death. Indeed, Cage could and should have been sued for plagiarism.

The most famous examples are the silences in Debussy's Pelleas. Debussy stated that he had used "silence as a means of expression."

Wikipedia lists many more silent pre-4'33" musical compositions:

"Cage was not the first composer to conceive of a piece consisting solely of silence. Precedents and prior examples include:
Alphonse Allais's 1897 Funeral March for the Obsequies of a Deaf Man, consisting of nine blank measures. Allais's composition is arguably closer in spirit to Cage's work; Allais was an associate of Erik Satie, and given Cage's profound admiration for Satie, the possibility that Cage was inspired by the Funeral March is tempting. However, according to Cage himself, he was unaware of Allais's composition at the time (though he had heard of a nineteenth century book that was completely blank).[15][page needed]
Erwin Schulhoff's 1919 "In futurum", a movement from the Fünf Pittoresken for piano. The Czech composer's meticulously notated composition is made up entirely of rests.[16] In Harold Acton's 1928 book Cornelium a musician conducts "performances consisting largely of silence".[17] Yves Klein's 1949 Monotone-Silence Symphony (informally The Monotone Symphony, conceived 1947–1948), an orchestral forty minute piece whose second and last movement is a twenty minute silence[18] (the first movement being an unvarying twenty minute drone)."

To that, I would add: How about the published instrumental parts for countless 19th C. orchestral and operatic works, in which one finds movements or numbers marked: Piccolo-TACET?

I recall that around a decade-or-so ago, some rock performer (whose name now escapes me) included a blank track on a CD and labeled it something like excerpt from John Cage's 4'33". He was promptly sued by Edition Peters, and soon caved in to the tune of $100,000. 'Tis a pity, he didn't take the opportunity to contest Cage's and Peters' copyright in court. As the US copyright office's website makes abundantly clear, there are many things that are not copyrightable. A title, for example. The alphabet, for another. I would think the absence of content cannot be copyrighted. Could anyone copyright a book whose pages were all blank (with the exception of a copyright statement)?

MS

[Carolus]

Got about 3-4 million USD in your pocket that's just burning a hole? I even know this very bright fellow in a very high-powered law school. You're right - it would be a very interesting court case. The whole Happy Birthday to You sand castle is another one that needs a good kick. Unfortunately, someone would have to spend a lot of money before Peters would throw in the towel on Mr. Cage's minimalist framework around silence (or audience reaction) - which has been something of a cash cow for them. Perhaps we should start a "Don Quixote Legal Defense Fund."

[sbeckmesser]

I don't believe silence is really the point of 4:33. A glance at the actual score will reveal that the point is the player not playing ("tacet" it says), which is quite a different matter and which points to much more fruitful interpretations of what the piece is actually trying to say. Besides, unless it is performed in an anechoic chamber 4:33 will never be truly silent.

Debussy's silences, as well as the reverb-filled grand pauses in Berlioz' Requiem and the varying pauses between the opening phrases of Wagner's Tristan (HARDLY EVER played as written) are likewise not silences either but musically charged spaces that derive their energy from the surrounding sounded music.

At $5.95 a copy I don't think Peters would agree with the evaluation of 4:33 as a "cash cow." How many individuals do you know who have actually purchased a copy? I bet Cage's works for prepared piano and the pieces for percussion ensemble bring in far more, if only from recording royalties.

--Sixtus

[Starrmark]

Has anyone copyrighted the cosmic radiation left over from the Big Bang? It's probably PD now in the US (no more editio princeps after 2002.) But it might qualify as a "scientific edition" in the EU. Here is my notation:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
diminuendo poco a poco

copyright 2011 by Mark Starr

[pml]

Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson will be in touch for royalties, Mark – their 1964 copyright of the CMB was eligible for the full 95 year term in the US and expires in 2060. (George Gamow’s 1946 notice was faulty.)

j/k

[Carolus]

Mark, While the print sales might not generate that much for Peters, the performance and broadcast royalties collected by BMI in the USA alone are substantial. That's probably why they went to the mat with their lawyers over the rock musician's attempt to use the piece. That all being what it may be, I agree with you that it would make a most interesting court case. Hard to guess how it would sort out if it actually went to trial, though.