[lbo-talk] Audience

[Carrol Cox]

A musicologist friend was telling me recently of attending a performance of
John Cage's 4′33″. He had found it impressive indeed. I rather doubt that
a recording of it would be of much interest. And of course a video of it
could not possible incorporate the ambience of the concert hall or present
the pianist's departures and returns between movements. If the video did not
focus on his hands as they turned the pages of the music it would falsify
the performance, but it would also falsify the performance if it did so
focus, since members of the audience were at varying distances from the
performer, and hence would be aware of different sounds floating in from
outside, the scraping of feet, and so forth.

And of course a critique of 4′33″ based on a video would make the critic
look pretty silly.

Carrol