Lio's score consisted of a single long rest. He had borrowed the notion from an iconoclast who once staged a concert in the dark. (iconoclast: nonconformist, radical, tradition-challenger) His own iconoclastic gesture made him popular with students and deeply unpopular with the caretaker, who had to turn on the lights again. (iconoclastic: nonconformist, unorthodox, radical) His tutor suspected emulation was getting ahead of invention. (emulation: imitation, rivalry, competitive imitation)
"Try hearing the room first," she said. The radiator gave a sporadic tick. (sporadic: intermittent, occasional, irregular) The fan made a ceaseless whir that might stultify a listener after a minute. (ceaseless: incessant, unceasing, continuous; stultify: stupefy, dull, benumb) Across the corridor a lathe sang for four seconds, stopped for two and began again. None of the sounds was an accomplishment of the composer. His decision about which to let the audience hear was another matter.
At the premiere he raised the sash a finger's width. The sound of the lathe began to pervade the hall. (pervade: permeate, suffuse, penetrate) By the time it stopped, the audience could hear the radiator in the gap. Lio held the room through forty seconds of apparently uneventful sound. When his tutor asked who deserved the credit, he called the caretaker onstage.