Sunday 7 October 2012

John Cage 4'33" - a memory

Again I think of the lovely things I found in John Cage's 4'33" and the amusement I found in being aurally aware of the audience, who only coughed once or twice, then de-focussing the audience, staring at the pianist's flaming red hair, thinking how young he was, treading back to my own mind and seeing a silent black volcanic desert in Iceland where only the wind made the faintest sound through the soft sable sands, and back again to the black grid at the rear of the stage and being aware of the microphones recording this silence for Radio 3, and was that my stomach gurgling or was it my neighbour on the front row, and...wasn't this surreal and peaceful, wrapped in wafts and sheets of silent sound.
And then, too soon, the pianist arose and took his bow.

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