‘the protests are robbing my Columbia students of listening to John Cage’s 4’33, the piece of music that is explicitly designed to force you to listen to…what’s around you.’ absolutely perfect
it really does not get much better than this. every layer here is tremendous
McWhorter wants the sound of 4’33 to be birds chirping or people chatting, not chanting and police sirens. John Cage got his ass I’m afraid
@bo_austin_ John Cage explicitly specified that the piece was "only to be played if the surrounding sounds are mostly birds"
@bo_austin_ That's the same superficial mindset that I've seen in more than one corner of the Ivy League and academia in general. It's lowercase "intellectual", a put-on, full of cartoonish stereotypes of what it means to be smart or contribute anything worth a damn.
@bo_austin_ Speaking of John Cage, here's the advice he gave to students (and their teachers):
@bo_austin_ I saw a performance of 4'33" many years ago where an elderly gentleman in the audience started singing very quietly to himself and various members of the audience almost attacked him for "disturbing the silence" 🤷
@bo_austin_ John Cage has a hilarious bit from an interview where he sheepishly admits that he dislikes hearing the noise of an ambulance siren from his apartment — but he's learning to appreciate it!!
@bo_austin_ He probably goes to see the piece performed at Carnegie Hall and shushes his fellow concertgoers for their coughs and rustlings because he thinks the point of the piece is to hear the subtle tones of the HVAC system.