Listening to silence

Well, that was certainly different. According to the commentator, 4’33” was the piece that everyone had come to see, and it was the last performance of the two-hour concert.

The orchestra finishes the previous piece. The conductor leaves. I have to make the mandatory joke of “when do you know it’s started?” The conductor comes back, smiles at the audience. They applaud. He then looks at the orchestra. They open their notes.

Conductor stares at the clock. Now I have to repeat my joke. He then raises his baton a bit – it almost looks like he’s praying, his hands to his stomach, baton pointing at the orchestra. Apparently it’s now started. The audience is dead silent – in fact I don’t know if any other group of people can be that silent as a hall full of modern music snobs who have paid to come to listen to silence. The first movement stops – we know this because the conductor lowers his baton.

Audience coughs fiercely. The conductor wipes his forehead and the audience laughs. He and the orchestra turn page. Now the conductor raises his baton again, same position as before. During the second movement two people cough in the audience. The conductor lowers his baton and audience can cough again.

The third movement is different, because the conductor holds the baton in a different way. He’s holding it in his right hand so that its tip is pointing directly to the orchestra, and he’s supporting the right hand with the left. No one coughs this time.

And then it’s over. Most of the audience applauds, but not every one is clapping. Despite what the commentator said, I don’t think every one here appreciates 4’33” – I don't think it was the performance, it can’t really be that it was different from what they expected. I have to say I liked it more than I though I would – I was afraid it might be just a joke, but they performed it seriously, and it was taken seriously.

It was certainly unlike anything else.