MARCHE FUNÈBRE COMPOSÉE POUR LES FUNERAILLES D'UN GRAND HOMME SOURD
Created on 26/11/2007Latest update on 09/03/2024
Artist: Alphonse Allais
Author: Alphonse Allais
Year: 1897
Dadaïst; associate of Erik Satie. Consists of nine measures of silence, with a foreword by the author: "L'auteur de cette Marche funèbre s'est inspiré, dans sa composition, de ce principe, accepté par tout le monde, que les grandes douleurs sont muettes. Ces grandes douleurs étant muettes, les exécutants devront uniquement s'occuper à compter des mesures, au lieu de se livrer à ce tapage indécent qui retire tout caractère auguste aux meilleures obsèques."
Covers:
- 1919:
Erwin Schulhoff [as In Futurum, movement for piano made up entirely of the rests in his Fünf Pittoresken]
- 1952:
John Cage [as 4'33"; musical piece in three parts: first the pianist opens his instrument, waits motionless for the end of part one, closes it and opens it again, waits out part two for another reclosement and reopening, finally closing it again exactly 4'33" since his first movement; created by David Tudor at a recital in Woodstock, New York; NPR nominated it among The 100 most important American musical works of the 20th century; inspired by the white canvasses of painter Robert Rauschenberg; sceptici had a point: everyone can do it; Cage's standard answer: yes, but nobody did it before; unless...]
- 1968:
West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band [as Anniversary Of World War III; one minute and a half of silence]
- 1969:
John Lennon & Yoko Ono [as Two Minutes Silence; WYSIWYG; on their album Life With The Lions: Unfinished Music #2. The reason: Yoko's miscarriage; not to be confused with Lennon's 3 second short Nutopian International Anthem from Mind Games, following a totally different mind game indeed; the Lennons became John Cage's next-door neighbors in the West Village in New York City]
- 1970:
Wobbles [as One Minute's Silence; leader Mike Batt was sued by the Cage heirs for co-crediting himself for 'his' silence]
- 1988:
Ciccone Youth [as (silence), 63 seconds of silence on The Whitey Album]
- 1988:
Soundgarden [as One Minute Of Silence, crediting John Lennon]
- 1993:
Frank Zappa [as 4'33"]
- 2000:
Ismaël Robert [world creation of Allais' chamber music variation of his Marche funèbre at the FestivalManké in Nice, Fr]
- 2001:
Audiosmog & Tobi Schlegl [as Two Minutes Silence; apparantly a cover of John & Yoko]
- 2004:
BBC Symphony Orchestra [the orchestral version of 4'33" broadcasted live on BBC Radio 4]
- 2010:
Reinbert de Leeuw [as 4'33" live in De Wereld Draait Door]
To celebrate their 40th birthday in style, the Mute label (no pun intended) released a box set with 59 versions of John Cage's 4:33 performed by former and actual Mute acts like Depeche Mode, New Order, Wire, The Afghan Whigs, Irmin Schmidt, The Normal, Goldfrapp, Einstürzende Neubauten, Barry Adamson, Laibach, Cabaret Voltaire and Michael Gira. To represent Frank Tovey, the deseased leader of second Mute release Fad Gadget, a 4:33 blank was observed.
