busker

4' 33"

BBC Radio 3 surpassing looniness the other night with its broadcast of that hoaxter John Cage's 1952 piece for orchestra, 4' 33".

Programme notes:

• 
  Cage is trying "to say that there's no such thing as silence ... his invitatioin to recognise the difference between sounds and silence.".
• This was its first radio broadcast, with three sections which the BBC Symphony Orchestra had been '
  rehearsing'.
• Only one other performance had been heard - with a piano.
• Apparently, a score was essential to the performance, including page turning.
• NOrmally with the BBC, if there is no signal received at the transmitters for 2 mibutes, an emergency tape plays. The announced proudly that for this occasion the tape had been disabled.

What utter twaddle.