“A little bird tweeting merrily away at the crack of dawn woke me up the other morning. In midtown Manhattan. That never happens,” writes Karissa Krenz on Thursday (4/23) at New York classical radio station WQXR. “New York City is in the middle of its COVID-19 lockdown. Businesses are shuttered, most construction sites are quiet, and the streets are fairly empty.… The city’s sound has been different. Perhaps the coronavirus is forcing us to have an extended performance of John Cage’s 4’33”, the groundbreaking 1952 work that epitomized his every-sound-can-be-music philosophy…. I’ve been taking some of this time to listen anew, experiencing the sonic composition of a paused city…. On my recent walks … the quieter sounds … are surprisingly audible now: water rushing through the storm drains, garbage bags rustling in the breeze, exhaust systems churning, pigeons’ wings flapping in the middle of Times Square, the clicking of cyclists’ wheels, the flapping of flags, the rustling of the leaves, the sound of the rain. And the birds…. Ultimately, this quiet, introspective time of listening has made me realize that the sound of NYC is, for the most part, humanity…. The song of New York City is us.”
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