Episode 1: Silence
What does it mean to be silent? This hour of Stylus begins with a historic moment in music â the performance of John Cage's 4'33" in 1952 â and follows the composer's investigation of silence into the absolute quiet of anechoic chambers and down the hallways of monasteries. We consider the role of silence in jazz and classical music and hear the personal story of one young woman's descent into silence.Â
Listen above, download an mp3, or find other formats at the Internet Archive. To license the program for radio broadcast, please find us on PRX.
"Silence" includes the voices of:
Kay Larson, art critic, Zen Buddhist practitioner, and author of Where The Heart Beats.
Pico Iyer, essayist, novelist, and travel author.
Christopher Ricks, literary critic, professor at Boston University, and author of several books including Dylan's Visions of Sin.
James H. Johnson, professor of history at Boston University and author of several books including Listening in Paris.
Damian Carr, abbot of St. Joseph's Abbey, a Trappist monestary in Spencer, Mass.
Steven Cooper, a clinical associate professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School and speaker at Off the Couch, a film-studies series at Coolidge Corner Theater in Boston, Mass.Â
Bob Celmer, head of the acoustics program at the University of Hartford in West Hartford, Conn.
Cecil McBee, jazz bassist and professor at the New England Conservatory in Boston, Mass.Â
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, abbot of the Zen Center of New York City in Brooklyn, New York.
This hour was produced by Zack Ezor, Conor Gillies, and Andrea Shea. It also includes Brian Calvert's piece "The Rest is Silence," which was originally made for KCRW's Independent Producer Project. Thanks to Sean Cole, Katherine Gorman, and Erika Lantz for helping to edit the hour.













