“He (God) makes wars to cease throughout the earth;
He breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
He burns the shields in the fire.
“Be still and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted over the earth.”
Psalm 26:9-10 ESV
Silence is the absence of sound. Or is it…
4′33″ (pronounced “four thirty-three”) is a three-movement ‘musical’ composition by American experimental composer John Cage.
Cage was unconventional, a free-thinker, an artist. Someone who pushed the norms.
4’33’ was composed in 1952, and first ‘performed’ later that same year by pianist David Tudor.
According to accounts, Tudor walked on stage near Woodstock, New York, sat down at the piano and played, well nothing.
Audience members at first had no idea what to make of Cage’s controversial composition.
Some patrons just stared. Some began to fidget. Some walked out.
4’33” (or the composition of silence) was intended to help (or force) the audience to discover “the absence of intended sounds”.
Or the “impossibility of actual silence in life”. Coughing, squeaking seats, even departing footsteps became part of the unusual composition.
Even in our own stillness, there is noise. We can’t escape it.
Yet, the scriptures instruct us to ‘be still’. To rest. To reflect.
The Father is commanding us to ‘be still’.
Are we listening?
Verne
Sources:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/433-by-Cage
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/59902/101-masterpieces-john-cages-433
https://www.npr.org/programs/ted-radio-hour/923960989/sound-and-silence?showDate=2020-10-16
Verne Hill
VERSE: “Let everything that has breath praise the LORD” Psalm 150
QUOTE: “A person who loves his job, will never work a day in his life.”
MON-SAT 6A-10A(& Sunday@5 host)
verne@wbfj.fm
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