4′33 [a] is a modernist composition[b] by American experimental composer John Cage. It was composed in 1952 for any instrument or combination of instruments; the score instructs performers not to play their instruments throughout the three movements. It is divided into three movements,[c] lasting 30 seconds, 2 minutes and 23 seconds, and 1 minute and 40 seconds, respectively,[d] although Cage later stated that the movements' durations can be determined by the musician. As suggested by the title, the composition lasts 4 minutes and 33 seconds. It is marked by silence except for ambient sound, which is intended to contribute to the performance.

4′33 premiered in 1952 and was met with shock and widespread controversy; many musicologists revisited the very definition of music and questioned whether Cage's work qualified as such. Cage intended 4′33to be experimental—to test the audience's attitude to silence and prove that any auditory experience may constitute music, seeing that absolute silence[e] cannot exist. Although 4′33″ is labelled as four minutes and thirty-three seconds of silence, Cage maintains that the ambient noises heard during the performance contribute to the composition. Since this counters the conventional involvement of harmony and melody in music, many musicologists consider 4′33″ to be the birth of noise music, and some have likened it to Dadaist art. 4′33″ also embodies the idea of musical indeterminacy, as the silence is subject to the individual's interpretation; thereby, one is encouraged to explore their surroundings and themselves, as stipulated by Lacanianism.

4′33 greatly influenced modernist music, furthering the genres of noise music and silent music, which—whilst still controversial to this day—reverberate among many contemporary musicians. Cage re-explored the idea of silent composition in two later renditions: 0′00″ (1962) and One3 (1989). In a 1982 interview, and on numerous other occasions, he stated that 4′33″ was his most important work.[8] The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians describes 4′33″ as Cage's "most famous and controversial creation". In 2013, Dale Eisinger of Complex ranked the composition eighth in his list of the greatest performance art works.[9]