Horse 221 - Much Ado About Nothing

The world was shocked in 1953 at the first performance of a piano work entitled 4'33" by John Cage. The music (which is in 3 parts) calls for music in length of 30", 2'23", and 1'40" respectively. What makes the piece so utterly revolutionary isn't so much how it's made (which is wholly unremarkable) but the actual printed score.

At first glance the pianist would be absolutely horrfied at the score before them, as the piece has not got even a single note printed on the staves at all. In fact when it was first performed, the audience was shocked and angered that this so called "slient" piece of music should be allowed to fall into the realms of even the definition of music.

What Cage's intent was, was to demonstrate something so utterly simple that it actually requires something as stupid as this to show. He'd spent some time in an anechoic chamber and realised that when one is utterly still, that the so called silence is filled with the most minute of noises - from everything as small as his own heartbeat to even the rush of blood as it passes around the bones within the ear itself. Thus the piece is designed such that the audience is aware of all the little noises in the theatre - the rumble of the weather outside, even the shuffling of the audience itself.

Personally I agree with the audience that sat in on that fateful day in 1953, in that 4'33" is a load of old tash but it does highlight a very interesting principle. When one is still, one suddenly becomes aware of all the little things that one has missed because you were rushing.

Psalm 46:10 - Be still and know that I am God. Psalm 46 should be very familiar to a lot of us at church; I happen to like it for two reasons: The first is that the tune comes from The Dambusters, the second is that line telling us to be still - so that we might listen ever so patiently to the noises that we so often miss.

Kryten: Listen! Can anyone hear anything?
[Pause. There is silence]
Cat: No.
Kryten: Precisely. No one can hear anything! And you know WHY we can't hear anything? Rimmer: Why?
Kryten: [The Voice Of Doom] Because there are NO sounds to hear.
Rimmer: Kryten, isn't it round about this time of year that your head goes back to the lab for re-tuning?
Lister: No, no, he's right. There's no sounds because the engines are dead. We've lost all power!

Sometimes even more important are sounds that have ceased to be. Sometimes the noises that used to exist and that don't any more spell danger. Sometimes the quiet is regenerative and sometimes it's a signal that we need to be moving again. Whatever the case 4'33" is a potent reminder that "silence" (despite that it doesn't actually exist) is actually quite important.