Does Karlheinz Stockhausen's 4.33 libretto have any lyrics
I'm trying to help my sister-in-law with this question. When asked what song he would sing to her, her boyfriend said he would sing this song to her. Is this a cryptic answer with a special meaning?
Is this the right sub-reddit to ask?
Posted Jan 7, 2015, 8:50 AM UTC
74
The only work I know of with that title belongs to John Cage. 4'33'' is a completely silent work comprised entirely of rests.
Cage was trying to make a philosophical point that music is all around us in sounds that we don't normally attribute to being "musical." During a performance of the silent work the audience members are asked to notice the ambient sounds around them and decide for themselves whether or not there is beauty in them.
It's a very revolutionary idea and I think that it's a great concept, if a little off the wall. That being said, however, I'm pretty sure your sister-in-law's boyfriend is making a joke. By saying he will sing her a piece that is inherently silent he would, in effect, get out of singing at all. I feel like he was hoping she would already have heard of the piece and get the joke, as it has become a kind of "inside joke" for people who listen to modern classical music. The misattribution to Stockhausen (who was also a controversial composer at the time, so I can understand the confusion) might have been why your sister-in-law didn't get it.
It's a great question though! Too bad the joke didn't quite work out haha.
I don't think it was an unintentional misattribution to Stockhausen so much as possibly a continuation of the joke, insinuating that Stockhausen might have written a libretto to accompany 4'33"...but a blank one, to be sure.
So can I perform it at solo festival?
ymmv.