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People want and expect different things in music. Sometimes the results are hilarious. |
I submit for your approval a story by John Cage:
At the New School once I was substituting
for Henry Cowell, teaching a class
in Oriental music. I had told him I didn’t know anything about the subject.
He said, “That’s all
right. Just go where the records are.
Take one out. Play it and then discuss it
with the class.”
Well, I took out the first record.
It was an LP of a Buddhist service.
It began with a short microtonal chant with
sliding tones, then soon settled into a single loud reiterated percussive beat.
This noise continued relentlessly for about fifteen minutes
with no perceptible variation.
A lady got up and screamed, and then yelled,
“Take it off. I can’t bear it any longer.”
I took it off. A man in the class then said angrily,
“Why’d you take it off?
I was just getting interested.”