Gordon Henshaw asks:

>It is something of a challenge to know what is the correct concert
>etiquette to adopt during performances of this piece.  Any help?

Be somewhere else doing something more interesting.

Cage wrote some fine music and was a challenging thinker about the nature
of music.

4'33" is not, in my view, music - good, bad or indifferent.  It is a
rather shallow theatrical trick designed to make the audience think about
their ideas of what "music" is and their preconceptions of the concert
experience.  Nothing is gained by repeat performances, even if performed
by different instrumental groups, and the full meaning of the piece can
be derived from reading about it as easily as by going to a performance.

Cage's reputation as a minor but interesting offshoot of 20th century
music would be enhanced if we all forgot about 4'33" and concentrated on
the rest of his output which contains, as other listmembers have recently
argued, some rather good music.

Ian Crisp
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