check this out.. looking at stuff to download and came across
this:
John Cage - BBC Symphony Orchestra performs 4 min 33 sec of
Silence [128K-MP3]
Artist: John Cage
Genre: 20th Century
Source: BBC Streaming Audio
Format: MPEG-1 Layer 3 Audio (MP3)
Sample Rate: 44.100 kHz
Bit Rate: 128 kbps
Encoding: Stream Ripper X
Monday, 19 January, 2004, 14:29
GMT
BBC Symphony Orchestra performs 4'33 of
silence
Radio 3 plays 'silent symphony'
BBC Radio 3 has aired more than four minutes of complete silence...
by design.
The BBC Symphony Orchestra gave a performance of composer John
Cage's seminal piece 4'33", which does not contain a single
note.
Radio 3 broadcast the entire composition live, even having to
switch off its emergency system that cuts in when there is apparent
silence.
The performance took place on Friday night at London's Barbican
Centre.
It was part of a weekend of Cage's work. The late avant-garde
composer wrote the piece in 1952.
TV viewers were also able to watch the event when BBC Four
broadcast the concert, which also featured works that music lovers
could hear.
Cage's reasoning for composing 4'33" was to demonstrate that
wherever we are what we hear mostly is noise.
Mostly what you could hear was people getting up and walking
out.
BBC Symphony Orchestra general manager Paul Hughes of the 1952
première:
His estate won a bizarre copyright battle in 2002, when composer
Mike Batt agreed to pay a six-figure sum to a charity because his
album featured a tongue-in-cheek silent track which he credited as
co-written by Cage.
General manager Paul Hughes told BBC Radio 5 Live the orchestra had
rehearsed to get in the right frame of mind.
Despite having no notes to play, the musicians tuned up and then
turned pages of the score after each of the three movements
specified by the composer.
The silence was broken at times by coughing and rustling sounds
from the audience, who marked the end of the performance with
enthusiastic applause.
Mr Hughes denied the performance was a mindless gimmick and said
Cage believed music was all around us all the time and the piece
was his attempt to make the audience focus on sounds that were part
of our everyday lives.
But the audience at the premiere in 1952 was so discomforted that
mostly what you could hear was people getting up and walking out,
he said.
They were completely outraged and extremely angry, Mr Hughes
added.
He said Cage, who died in 1992 aged 80, was very proud of the
silent composition.
In readiness for the performance, Radio 3 bosses switched off their
emergency back-up system - designed to cut in when there is an
unexpected silence on air.
