Reviewed by Brian Lefresne As scholars and critics move further into the twenty-first century and farther away from the twentieth, they are better able to analyze and critique the creation and performance of the seminal works of our time. John Cage's 4'33" is one such work in need of this type of deep-rooted examination, and as Kyle Gann notes in the opening of his book, No Such Thing as Silence: John Cage's 4'33", a comprehensive study of this work could not have been written in the 20th

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... y (Gann xii). The reputation and the understanding of Cage's composition in the eye of the general public have suffered from a lack of knowledge about the ideas and philosophy of the composer, the roots of the creation of the work, and the context of its premiere. Kyle Gann's text admirably addresses all three of these angles in a compact and very accessible volume.