Precursors

Cage was not the first composer to conceive of a piece consisting solely of silence. Precedents and prior examples include:

• Alphonse Allais's 1897 Funeral March for the Obsequies of a Deaf Man, consisting of nine blank measures. Allais's composition is arguably closer in spirit to Cage's work; Allais was an associate of Erik Satie, and given Cage's profound admiration for Satie, the possibility that Cage was inspired by the Funeral March is tempting. However, according to Cage himself, he was unaware of Allais's composition at the time (though he had heard of a nineteenth century book that was completely blank).[14][page needed]
• Erwin Schulhoff's 1919 "In futurum", a movement from the Fќnf Pittoresken for piano. The Czech composer's meticulously notated composition is made up entirely of rests.[15] Cage was, however, almost certainly unaware of Schulhoff's work.[citation needed]
• Yves Klein's 1949 Monotone-Silence Symphony (informally The Monotone Symphony, conceived 1947–194, an orchestral forty minute piece whose second and last movement is a twenty minute silence[16] (the first movement being an unvarying twenty minute drone).

Originally Posted by IceShadow

Dude picking his nose at 2:27.

Originally Posted by m0o

Although silence is an important part of music, this was merely a statement or publicity stunt, not music.

/thread