Klarinet Archive - Posting 000647.txt from 2001/09

From: "Tony Wakefield" <tony-wakefield@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Silence is Golden
Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2001 13:29:38 -0400

From: Stephen Heinemann, in reply to:-

> > His organ music didn`t begin with 16 months of silence. There
> > were services every week in that very church, interrupting and
destroying
> > Cage`s silences, which included hymns, psalms,
> > anthems, organ voluntaries, prayers, chants, responses, and the
occasional
> > cantata and oratorio I shouldn`t wonder. Not to mention the occasional
> > symphony concert also. All written by composers who spent just a little
of
> > their time putting pen to paper.
> > Enough said? - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> > T.W.

> No. Cage regarded silence as ambient sound, noting that even in an
anechoic
> chamber you can hear your own heartbeat. His so-called "silent pieces"
are,
> at least in part, lessons in listening -- paying attention to all the
> sounds, not just the "intended" ones. (It is also true that the pieces
gave
> him more than a bit of notoriety, which some composers find useful in
their
> careers).
>
> Igor Stravinsky (himself no stranger to notoriety), when asked to comment
on
> Cage's silent _4'33"_, replied, "Very nice -- I look forward to his longer
> pieces." The 639-year-long piece is news to me, but it seems that Cage
was
> able to oblige in a big way.

Well here`s my bit of notoriety:-

New Composition with world premiere about to commence as soon as everyone on
klarinet opens this e-mail. After reading said mail, everyone is to sit
silently for 3 years listening to their own ambient body sounds, whilst I
utter the following word repeating constantly for 1/2 minute "Rubbish", then
disappear to the nearest bar for lunch with my beautiful wife, come back
home and play one eighth note on clarinet. I welcome critical reviews. But
only serious ones from within the pages of the New York Times and the U.K.
Times newspaper. But only after the performance has ended.

Is that notorious enough?

T.W.

---------------------------------------------------------------------