Everything can be music

On my favorite podcast TED Radio Hour, I heard a fantastic episode: Sound And Silence.

It plunged you into the sonic world — and for me, gave a wonderful exposure into the presence and absence of sound.

A curious story came up: the composer John Cage and his song of 4′33”. In 1952, Cage performed this wildly bold and controversial classical piece in front of a massive concert audience. What is it? Booming brass? Sparkling strings?

Nope. It was four minutes and 33 seconds of full, complete silence.

But was it actually silence?

The piece encourages the listener to ‘hear’ the ambient noise around them for almost 5 minutes: the bustling of the paper, the creaking of the seats, even the gurgling of their stomach.

From NPR: “Unlike compositions designed to make the outside world fall away, here was a music that, when it engaged you, made the present world open up like a lotus blossoming in stop-motion photography.”

What a wonderful reminder for centering around the present. Because then, as Cage says: “Everything can be music.”