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Silence and/in Music

October 31st, 2008

An example of how silence remains secondary to sound and music in the theory of music can be found in Thomas Clifton’s essay ‘The Poetics of Musical Silence’. ‘To focus on the phenomenon of musical silence is analogous to deliberately studying the spaces between trees in a forest: somewhat perverse at first, until one realizes that these spaces contribute to the perceived character of the forest itself, and enable us to speak coherently of ‘dense’ growth or ’sparse’ vegetation. In other words, silence is not nothing.

by Nelson Filed under: dreams

One Response to “Silence and/in Music”

  1. HC
    November 2nd, 2008 - 7:33 am

    Think of Music, and its Silences, as a Communicative Act that unfolds BETWEEN people…

    One of the primary differences between music and silence, is that musical sounds are made and then heard; but musical silences are not made. They are a kind of ether, shared between player and listener.Sounds and silences are meaningful in the ways in which they are experienced between people.

    Silence can offer a space within which the greatest intimacy between composer, performer and listener can be found.

    – Julie Sutton

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