silence

Jan Zwicky, SONGS FOR RELINQUISHING THE EARTH

“As an artist, she is totally and utterly informed by writers like Arthur Rimbaud, Allen Ginsberg, Albert Camus and countless others who inspired a young Smith to leave her hometown and seek out a poetic lifestyle. Whether she’s referencing her seemingly encyclopedic knowledge of classic works, drawing links to the beat generation she caught the tail end of, or even reworking her own poetry into song, almost every Patti Smith song has a connection to literature somewhere. “

HYMN by Edgar Allan Poe

“…when David Tudor sat at the piano for 4 minutes and 33 seconds and never played a note, there wasn't silence. The audience could hear the sounds of nature all around them. And that's what Cage was after. He wanted his audience to listen to 4 minutes and 33 seconds of the world with the same attention and the same concentration that they would normally devote to four and a half minutes of Mozart or Beethoven or Brahms.”