Eric Willstaedt saith, replying to Bernard Chasan:

>>And what I remember most vividly is the Schubert Mass (his last) which
>>a Boston station played.  It was what I needed to hear.
>
>so no other Mass would have done??? that is what you infer.

No, that is what *you* infer.  Bernard may or may not be implying that (I
doubt it).  I inferred that he needed to hear music *like* that Schubert
mass.  It probably wouldn't have done the trick for me (I would have wanted
something like the Webern Five Pieces), nor for you, who wants silence (in
which case, as has been pointed out, you wouldn't have turned on the radio
anyway).

>I think it would be a better gesture to have absolute silence on the air
>waves.

You mean, like no news, no nothing? Let's see, the President has just
been killed, and the radio stations are out.  How about the TV stations?
If it's good enough for radio, it's good enough for TV.  Why not newspapers
and magazines as well? So now the country knows the President has been
assassinated and there's no news at all.  In fact, there's no countrywide
communication at all.  Sounds to me like a coup.

This is one of those ideas that sound cool in imagined retrospect ("...
and, out of respect, the radios were silent") than in real life.

>this would be a more profound response to the devastation of 9-11, plus
>people would notice the silence....

More profound? Is there a scale? How many profundity points does silence
get, as opposed to art music? And "notice the silence?" You bet!  But
probably not in a good way.

>Far better than self righteous and extremely shallow musical programs in
>my humble opinion.

What about shallow and pretentious silence?

Steve Schwartz