SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
More than a thousand musicians, including Kate Bush and Annie Lennox, came together to release an album this week with no words or music. They're taking a stand against proposed changes to British copyright laws around artificial intelligence. But this is not the first time musical artists have staged silent protests. As NPR's Chloe Veltman reports, the idea stretches back centuries.
CHLOE VELTMAN, BYLINE: The British government is proposing that generative AI companies be allowed to train their models on creative works unless artists opt out. Many musicians in the U.K. aren't happy about it, so they've released an album aimed at pushing back against the plan. Most of it sounds like this.
(SOUNDBITE OF EMPTY AIR SPACE)
VELTMAN: Composer and generative AI expert Ed Newton-Rex came up with the concept. He says the 12 tracks were recorded in empty performance spaces and studios. The album's title, "Is This What We Want?"
ED NEWTON-REX: Empty studios and empty performance spaces and a negative effect on people's livelihoods. It's meant to symbolize, you know, what we think the result of the government's proposals would be.
VELTMAN: The album is the latest in a long tradition of musicians using silence as a form of artistic protest. Among them, Joseph Haydn.
(SOUNDBITE OF MERCURY CHAMBER PERFORMANCE OF JOSEPH HAYDN'S "SYMPHONY NO. 45, 'FAREWELL' IV FINALE")
NATE SLOAN: The Austrian 18th century composer has a piece called the "Farewell Symphony."
VELTMAN: That's University of Southern California musicologist Nate Sloan.
SLOAN: The reason it's called the "Farewell Symphony" is that one by one, each musician in the orchestra stands up, blows out the candle they were using to illuminate their sheet music, and walks off the stage.
VELTMAN: Sloan is talking about the final movements of the piece.
(SOUNDBITE OF MERCURY CHAMBER PERFORMANCE OF JOSEPH HAYDN'S "SYMPHONY NO. 45, 'FAREWELL' IV FINALE")
VELTMAN: Various wind, brass and string players gradually shuffle off into the wings in this live Mercury Chamber Orchestra performance on YouTube. A few minutes in, the orchestra's starting to look pretty thin.
(SOUNDBITE OF MERCURY CHAMBER PERFORMANCE OF JOSEPH HAYDN'S "SYMPHONY NO. 45, 'FAREWELL' IV FINALE")
VELTMAN: Eventually, the conductor walks out...
(SOUNDBITE OF MERCURY CHAMBER PERFORMANCE OF JOSEPH HAYDN'S "SYMPHONY NO. 45, 'FAREWELL' IV FINALE")
VELTMAN: ...Leaving just two solitary violinists on stage to finish off the job.
(SOUNDBITE OF MERCURY CHAMBER PERFORMANCE OF JOSEPH HAYDN'S "SYMPHONY NO. 45, 'FAREWELL' IV FINALE")
VELTMAN: Musicologist Nate Sloan says Haydn used these theatrics to make a point. It was all about getting his patron, Prince Esterhazy, to stop overworking the musicians and let them go home to their families. Sloan says the prince got the message and conceded to the composer's demands.
SLOAN: This was maybe the most effective way that Haydn could have asked for this - in this very public setting, through the medium of music and by withholding sound.
VELTMAN: It's not just baroque-era classical musicians who've used silence to fight the power.
(SOUNDBITE OF LOUIS ARMSTRONG SONG, "I'M A DIN DONG DADDY (FROM DUMAS)")
VELTMAN: Fast-forward to the 1930s. Sebastian's Cotton Club in Los Angeles was one of the most hopping jazz venues in California. Louis Armstrong performed and recorded tracks there, including this one.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I'M A DIN DONG DADDY (FROM DUMAS)")
LOUIS ARMSTRONG: (Singing) I'm a ding dong daddy from Dumas.
VELTMAN: But the chorus girls at the club weren't happy.
SLOAN: The female singers and dancers wanted better pay. They wanted better treatment.
VELTMAN: Their requests were repeatedly ignored. So Sloan says one night in 1937, they decided to take action.
SLOAN: They come out one night, and they all sit down in the middle of the stage. And they refused to sing and they refused to dance until the club's owner, Frank Sebastian, meets their demands.
VELTMAN: Sloan says Sebastian quickly gave the women a raise.
SLOAN: I think there's something really striking about replacing sound with silence.
VELTMAN: Sloan says it makes you appreciate how valuable the art is when all of a sudden, it's taken away.
Chloe Veltman, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WE SHALL OVERCOME")
PETE SEEGER: (Singing) We shall overcome. We shall overcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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