4'33" and absolute what?

[MASCARO at humnet.ucla.edu]

Grip:

Sorry if I implied you were the task caller.  It was others, to whom my 
scatteredbrain memory sez thanks for reminding me of the proper title.  I still am a 
little skeptical of your  (and Murthy's) clever attempts to keep the absolute zero 
connection in motion, as it were.  Why not call it "Zero" then, or "Absolute Zero"?  
Why assume the musicians count--back--to zero?  What if they count forward to 
4'33"?  And if they start at absolute zero, as Murthy writes, why then there 
wouldn't be any way for them to start counting their way out of it!  Once you hit 
absolute zero, as I understand it, your options get sort of limited, no . . .?  Anyway, 
you opened up a new angle on this piece for me.

john m



>On Thu, 16 May 1996 MASCARO at humnet.ucla.edu wrote:
>
>> grip writes:
>> 
>> >I expected someone to mention the source of the values, 4 minutes and 33 
>> >seconds, but no one did. Is it because it's such common knowledge 
>> >everyone assumes it is known?
>> >
>> >At the risk of saying the obvious, 4'33" = 273". The temperature at which 
>> >all molecular motion ceases is -273 C. Hence the silence.
>> 
>> 
>> Hey grip, if I am going to be--rightfully--called to task for continually forgetting 
>that 
>> 4'37" is not the same as 4' 33", I guess I am allowed to point out that 273 is not 
>the 
>> same as -273. Hence the lack of silence.
>
>Sorry,
>
>I didn't think I was taking any one to task, just pointing out the origin 
>of the value. The negative comes in to play as the performer silently counts 
>backwards, (i.e. negatively) from 272  to 0, as part of the performance. 
>
><grin>
>
>grip  
>