Silence in Music

"Whatever the place, whatever the time, every lane moves, but the one where I'm."

- Random quote.

Weather: Hot

Music is very magical. In all the fine arts mankind has created - from performing arts to visual arts, music manipulates what many considers to be the fourth dimension: time.

 

Tick tock tick tock.

From choreography to empty space, all fine arts have a special element to them, of which music has the ability to "traverse" time. Most musicians often simply refer to music as pitches (melody) in a sequence. Many of us forget these pitches have to occur at composer-specified points in time.

Suddenly, you realize that all those rests actually mean something other than "Oh man your hands must be tired - give them a few seconds to shake it off" or "EMERGENCY BRAKE AIRBAG POOPHM."

It slows down from breakneck speed to a crawling speed. No, it's not time for you to complain how hard the left hand is.

Just like paintings utilize white space to help emphasize the subject, music weights silence as important as (in fact, maybe even more important than) the sounds themselves. It's agreed that John Cage's 4'33" takes the idea overboard, but silence, when used right, can be beautiful too.

 

4'33" portrayed in art.

Too much freewriting by me - it's time to homework and piano.