John Cage's Empty Words (1974) is a marathon text drawn from the Journals of Henry David Thoreau. This is one of Cage’s most sustained and elaborate moves toward the “demilitarization” of language, in four parts: Part I omits sentences, Part II omits phrases, and Part III omits words. Part IV, which omits syllables, leaves us nothing but a virtual lullaby of letters and sounds.

Find more information about Empty Words here, from Pocci’s blog on johncage.it (John Cage in Italy).

Listen to Cage Performing Empty Words

You’ll be hearing a studio recording made by Cage at Mills College in Oakland, California, in 1978, lasting some 10 hours. It was heard communally, with mandatory breaks, at the John Cage Trust's Empty Words centennial sleepover event at Bard College in June 2012. The reading is ongoing, so you are entering by chance wherever Cage may be in the work. Playback is automatic. If you hear nothing, be patient—you've entered at a silent section. You may silence Cage's reading, but when you "restart" you will be entering at a later point.

Here is an overview of the work’s sections as referenced by the running time.

Section 1 — 00:00:00 – 2:30:00

Section 2 — 02:30:01 – 05:01:33

Section 3 — 05:01:34 – 07:34:13

Section 4 — 07:34:14 – 10:04:20