Mike Leghorn wrote:

>>I'm sorry.  I still don't get it.  Just because I'm physically
>>present at a concert performance of 4'33" doesn't necessarily mean I'm
>>participating and sitting respectfully and truely listening to the music
>>of silence.  I might be daydreaming or fidgetting, like so many people do,

Dave Runnion replied:

>The sounds that you hear during those 4 minutes or so are what John Cage'
>intended that you should hear.  The sounds you hear during the Franck
>Sonata on the second half, if you're listening, are the things that Mr.
>Franck wanted you to hear.  What's the difference if you're figetting?
>I don't get what you don't get.

I'm sorry to be more dense than Platinum (21.5), but I still don't get
it.  If I'm present at a Franck Sonata, I will almost certainly hear notes
played by a piano and a violin (it's a violin & piano sonata, right?),
and I'll probably hear melody and harmony, and, if I'm paying attention,
small structures within larger structures.  But, when I'm sitting at a
performance of 4'33", I might not hear anything that composer intended.  I
guess I answered my own question:  it's possible to be totally absent in
mind while being physically present at any concert.  It still perplexes
me...

Mike