Silence Underscores Musical Exploration

Dannie Dong ’24 entered the Hyde Chapel stage, placed his score on the grand piano music stand, clicked a stopwatch, and sat, silently, turning pages of his score and opening and closing the fallboard at timed intervals, for 4 minutes and 33 seconds. Students watched and mumbled in wonder at what was going on. Upon completion, the skilled pianist stood and bowed to a standing ovation.
Music Instructor Matt Tutor ’91 took the podium and explained that Dong was performing 4′33″ , by American composer John Cage, which instructs musicians not to play throughout three movements. Mr. Tutor’s goal was to expand his audience’s idea of what music is and to encourage the boys to open their minds to unfamiliar forms, from the Bulgarian Women’s Choir to Indian ragas.

He concluded with a list of reasons for expanding one’s musical knowledge: “You should study music because it’s the most magical, amazing thing on the face of the planet. Music can help you celebrate; it can help you grieve. Music can lift you out of a depression and help you cope with any of life’s difficulties or successes. It can teach you how to fall in love; it can help you with the heartbreak after having fallen in love. It can give you the magical things of life or just give you some kind of silly, playful nothingness for as long as you need it. Whatever space you’re in, whatever you need, there is some kind of music out there that can help.”
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