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The purpose of this essay is to examine the aesthetic behind Cage's "silent" composition, 4'33", to trace its history, and to show that it marked a significant change in John Cage's musical thought -- specifically how it forms a point-of-no-return from the conventional communicative, self-expressive and intentional purpose of music to a radical new aesthetic that informs the field of unintentional sound, interpenetration, chance, and indeterminacy. The compositional process is described, both the writing of 4'33" and its evolution from past thought. Implications for performance are examined.

Qin music tends to linger on certain notes, with an emphasis on silence and timbre, giving it a meditative quality. Being an instrument historically associated with literati, its aim is Confucian (in trying to cultivate one's mind) as well as Daoist (in s

Fan yin 〔泛音〕, or "floating sounds," are harmonics where the player lightly touches the string with one or more fingers of the left hand at a position indicated by the hui dots, pluck and lift, creating a crisp and clear sound

an yin 〔按音 / 案音 / 實音 / 走音〕, or "stopped sounds." This forms the bulk of most qin pieces and requires the player to press on a string with a finger or thumb of the left hand until it connects with the surface board, then pluck. Afterwards, the musician's h

The birth of soundscape aesthetics; postmodernism; minimalism and droning minimalism; second-generation minimalists; event music in the electronic age; collage and field recordings in the electronic age; collage in the age of the sampler; post-jazz; post-chamber; glitch; digital minimialism; ambient avantgarde; database of contemporary composers; chronology; selected works...

Example of using same note on two different strings: Listen carefully to the two/three notes at the end of each phrase...

One of the guqin's fingerings is the sound called "san yin" 〔散音〕, which means "scattered sounds."

shengjiang 〔聲像〕 or "manifestations of sound" of the qin.