This topic recalls the story (most probably a bubba misa) of Harpo Marx
learning to play the harp part for Ravel's Introduction and Allegro.  Since
no one ever taught him about rests he finished well ahead of the other six
players.

On a more serious note, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, our music director appointee
here in Fort Worth, found the ideal way to stop the audience's chronic
chit-chat when he told them that the effect of the work that they were
about to hear (Death and Transfiguration) depended a lot on
silence--silence in the orchestra and silence in the house.

Aaron J. Rabushka
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http://www.cowtown.net/users/arabushk/