David Runnion wrote:

>The point is, you *don't* hear 4'33" on your way to the snack bar,
>you hear the chaos of the noise of the day, unorganized, and you don't
>really listen to it, in fact we reject it, who wants to listen to cars and
>televisions and people farting in the lobby of the theater, but when it is
>the silence of the concert hall, when it is organized as a concert piece of
>music, when John Cage tells you to *listen* to the sound of "silence" then
>you really hear the "music" that naturally occurs in silence.

Speak for yourself laddy.  I DO listen to the sounds around me, and
whoever said the sounds needed to be organized? I don't care where you hear
a performance of the piece because there will ALWAYS be unorganized sound.
Does a cough or a hiccup or a sneeze constitute "organized" sound? I've
been to performances of 4'33" and heard nothing different than I hear in a
library when I'm not busy reading.  Ohh, I'm sorry, I almost forgot.  You
are John Cage's Siamese twin separated at birth.  How dare I ever challenge
your knowledge and insight into Cage's thought process? I almost forgot
that you and ONLY you could ever truly understand Cage.  Yes, only you know
what 4'33" is all about.  Please forgive me for even thinking of treading
upon your sacred ground.

>The important distinction to me is the fact that it is in the concert hall
>during a presentation of music that we hear this piece.  It becomes, then,
>organized sound instead of chaos.  And music is nothing more than organized
>sound.  In your accessible music, Wes, perhaps you organize the sound using
>traditional western instruments playing pleasing, familiar melodies, thus
>organizing the sound, the vibrations of sound, in a certain way.  How is
>this different, then, from organizing sound by simply utilizing nothing
>more than the naturally occurring sounds in the silence of a concert hall?
>The deep and emotional sound of your own breathing and heartbeat*(see note)
>the exquisite tension of someone slowly unwrapping a Butterfinger, coughs
>and whispers, laughter, sheepbells, if it is organized, it is music.

Isn't this the biggest contradiction I have ever heard.  One minute you
tell me that the sounds of a candy wrapper and people chattering are the
"chaos of the day" as you put it.  Now you are telling me that if they are
"organized" then they suddenly become music.  Which is it Mr.  Runnion? Are
these sounds chaos or are they music.  Also, please tell me, if you would,
how does one go about organizing naturally occurring sounds? How does one
turn the "chaos of the day" into "organized music"?

>*Cage once went into a scientifically soundproof room, a place absolutely
>devoid of any outside noise, and listened to the music of his own body.
>His heartbeat, a low hum from the circulatory system, a highpitched sound
>of his body's electrical system.  Harmony and rhythm.

I myself have been inside (what is also called) a "dead" room.  My theory
instructor mentioned that we may be able to hear the impulses of our nerve
endings.

"Wes Crone" <[log in to unmask]>