4′33″ is the 1952 composition by John Cage in which the performer plays nothing for three movements, leaving the audience to hear whatever sounds the room and the world supply. It was premiered by the pianist David Tudor on 29 August 1952 at the Maverick Concert Hall near Woodstock, New York. Tudor sat at the piano with a stopwatch, keeping the lid closed through each movement and raising it briefly between them; the three sections lasted 33 seconds, 2 minutes 40 seconds and 1 minute 20 seconds.
Cage drew on two experiences of 1951: Robert Rauschenberg’s all-white paintings, and a visit to Harvard’s anechoic chamber, where he still heard sounds he was told came from his own body. The conclusion that true silence does not exist became the work’s argument, and the premiere audience heard wind, rain and its own restlessness. The piece is a cornerstone for drone and ambient listening because it moves attention from composed material to the act of listening itself, treating the background of a space as music.