Indeterminacy 4

One day when the windows were
open, Christian
Wolff played one of his pieces
at the piano.
Sounds of traffic,
boat horns,
were heard not only during
the silences in the music,
but,
being louder,
were more easily heard than the
piano sounds themselves.
Afterward,
someone asked Christian
Wolff to play the piece again
with the windows closed.
Christian Wolff
said he’d be glad to,
but that it
wasn’t really necessary,
since the sounds of
the environment were in
no sense an interruption
of those of the music.

- John Cage