[F_MINOR] The Show Must Go On! [was] (off-topic)Cage on the Beeb

[Elmer Elevator <bobmer.javanet@RCN.COM>]

Guess what was on tonight's BBC TV News? The Symphony's rehearsal of 4' 33"!

There were about 40 or 50 musicians (I guess they were musicians, they could
have been psychiatrists or cowgirls), and at various times the conductor (he
had a USA or Canadian accent) would nod, and EVERYBODY WOULD TURN THE PAGE
IN THEIR MUSIC SCORE!!! (This was the premiere of the New Version for
Symphony Orchestra; the original, of course, was for piano.)

Interview with the Conductor: He said it introduces the musicians and the
audience to aspects of silence in the performance hall they had never
noticed before -- the air-conditioning system, people coughing. (They showed
the oscilloscope pattern of somebody coughing.)

The musicians were all keeping a straight (serious, professional) face when
they knew they were on camera. Nobody was giggling. Judged by their
demeanor, they might have been rehearsing for something that actually had
sounds and notes. This was as serious and professional a rehearsal as it
gets.

(But I never saw the Conductor stop the rehearsal and explain how he wanted
a particular passage played, now please pick it up at Measure 61.)

I guess they all got paid union scale for the rehearsals and the
performance.

If this new symphony version catches on, I may finally get a chance to
perform with an orchestra! Call me a braggart, but I can play 4'33" as well
as any virtuoso, with taste and passion. I certainly deserve second chair in
one of the sections, any section, doesn't matter which.

Our Kage Kult Pals over on the "Silence" list must be absolutely going nuts
this week! (Or are they expressing their hysteria with a complete absence of
posting, not a single punctuation mark?)

Elmer
        -----Original Message-----
        From: pzumst <pzumst@BLUEWIN.CH>
        To: F_MINOR@email.rutgers.edu <F_MINOR@email.rutgers.edu>
        Date: Tuesday, January 13, 2004 2:56 PM
        Subject: [F_MINOR] GG: (off-topic)Cage on the Beeb


        http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/3390605.stm
        live broadcast : http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/

        The BBC Symphony Orchestra is to give a performance of composer John
Cage's seminal piece 4'33" - nearly five minutes of complete silence.
        BBC Radio 3 is to broadcast the entire composition live, even having
to switch off its emergency system which cuts in when there is apparent
silence.

        The late avant-garde composer "wrote" the piece in 1952.

        The performance takes place on Friday at London's Barbican Centre,
as part of a weekend celebrating Cage's work.

        TV viewers will also be able to watch the event when BBC Four
broadcasts the concert, which also features works that music lovers will be
able to hear.

        Cage's reasoning for composing 4'33" was to demonstrate that
"wherever we are what we hear mostly is noise".

        His estate won a bizarre copyright battle in 2002, when composer
Mike Batt agreed to pay a six-figure sum to a charity because his album
featured a tongue-in-cheek silent track which he credited as co-written by
Cage.

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