Music

Would you pay $1 to record total silence?

by Tyler Munro

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John Cage’s “4’33″” is one of the most infamous and controversial compositions of all time, and for good reason—named after its runtime, the work is entirely silent.

Cage composed the piece for any instrument or combination thereof, asking musicians not to play a single note throughout. Pretentious as it likely sounds (or doesn’t) Cage says 4’33”‘s silent movements prove anything can be music; in this case, the environmental flutterings that happen throughout.

And now there’s an app for fans to record their own “4’33″”.

4′ 33″ – John Cage is officially licensed by the Cage’s estate and acts as kind of a crossover between your iPhone’s stopwatch and recorder applications, adding in a social sharing aspect to see what total silence sounds like across all environments.

In concept, this is a great idea. A modern take on an iconic artistic endeavour, the app extends the statement into the 21st century. The problem is it’s not free. Would you pay $1 to record total silence?

On the latest episode of This Exists, we explore this concept and more. To be specific: songs that exist by not existing at all.