Golden calf up the Israelites' golden earrings and ornaments, constructed a "molten calf" and they declared: "These "[be]" thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." (Exodus 32:4) Aaron built an altar before the calf and proclaimed the next day to be a feast to the . So they rose up early the next day and "offered burnt-offerings, and brought peace-offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play." (Exodus 32:6) God told Moses what the Israelites were up to back in camp, that they had turned aside quickly
The Teacher Who Was Not To Be had been admitted to the Norwegian Society of Composers. Thommessen, born in 1946, is known as an atonal modernist composer and a representative of the generation of composers who became active in the 1970s, whereas Paus, born in 1979, is a noted representative of a reorientation toward tradition, tonality and melody, who once described himself as a "cultural conservative non-modernist." The monologue is emblematic of the generation gap among older Norwegian atonal modernist composers and the younger generation of composers, who are more open to other, including traditional, musical styles. Thommessen had previously been Paus' teacher at the Norwegian Academy