Steve Schwartz adds fuel to Bernard Chasan's hypothetical forest fire
about...

>>...an interesting philosophical question to be considered here.  If 4'33"
>>is played in an isolated clearing in the woods, so that no listeners are
>>present, will it still make no sound?

...namely, by asking:

>If Mahler's 9th is playing on a boom box in the same place, and the owner
>of the boom box suffered a fatal stroke just after he pushed the "play"
>button, does it make a sound?

I agree that it makes no difference what music is played in this
experiment/zen puzzle ...though I'm not sure that I agree that both have
the same status as music.

In any case, FWIW, Bertrand Russell thought he'd solved the problem, thus:
tape the result -- presuming these music lovers would stage that awful
scenario for philosophical purposes -- and listen to the resulting
recording afterwards.

Hey presto!

Bert Bailey