naturerecordists
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: The Sound Of Silence

Subject: Re: The Sound Of Silence
From: "Lindsay Cargill" loxiaguitarista
Date: Mon Jan 5, 2009 1:21 pm ((PST))
--- In  Bernie Krause <>
wrote:
>
> John Cage once observed that the most important element in music was
> periods of silence.
>
> Bernie


Cage's 3'22" to which you may be referring is not 'silence' per se,
though I accept it would probably contain some periods of silence. The
piece begins and ends with the performer opening and closing the piano
lid, which makes a noise. In between, the noise of the audience in the
auditorium (coughing, breathing, shuffling programme notes, talking
etc !)and that made by the performer is the actual 'piece'.

I am reminded of a funny scenerio as a Batchelors music student when a
friend of mine had to give a talk on Cage's 3'22". He was so diligent
that he wanted to use audio musical examples and even went to great
lengths to purchase an expensive import of a Cage CD containing the
piece from Tower Records. We all thought he was nuts - why not just
record 3'22" of 'air' in the Uni sudio ? But to our surprise the
performance of 3'22" on his CD was anything but silent and indeed was a
unique performance in its own right, just as Cage intended.

I have always thought of the silence, or near silence (!) at the
beginning and end of a piece of music as the very structures
that 'frame' the art. This would also seem to apply to bird song.

Lindsay





<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the naturerecordists mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU