Audience Applauds Silence

On Friday, I went to a concert at an art gallery in Cambridge, where a string quartet performed music by Lou Harrison and John Cage.

The music included Cage's notorious 4' 33". The group's cellist walked on, sat at the piano and started a stopwatch. He and the audience then sat still and silent for four minutes and thirty three seconds as we listened to the sounds in the room and those coming in from outside. At the end he stood, bowed and everyone applauded.

I thought about that and wondered: who were we applauding? Not the cellist - he didn't play anything and his ability to operate a stopwatch was hardly worth clapping for. The architect or the builder of the gallery for creating the acoustics? I'm just guessing, but I don't think either of them were there.

I was reminded of Karl Pilkington's views on modern art and wondered if I've listened to too many Ricky Gervais shows.