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Music Matters: The sounds of silence

Posted January 17, 2008 10:00 pm

Steven Karidoyanes

My favorite lines in the 1980 movie "The Blues Brothers" come when Jake and Elwood Blues show up at a backwoods bar known as Bob's Country Bunker and try to score an evening gig.

"What kind of music do you normally have here?" asks one brother to the bartender.

"We got BOTH kinds," exclaims the bartender. "Country AND Western!"

Sounds pretty basic - but let's see how basic we can get.

A musical question I enjoy asking is, "What are the two most basic elements of music?" Depending on the age and experiences of those being asked, the answers are broad and varied.

When I ask music students that question, they first carefully contemplate the options. After some thought, their answers include "Melody and Rhythm," "Volume and Tempo," "Consonance and Dissonance," "Voices and Instruments," and, in regards to the printed musical page, "Notes and Staff Lines."

All of these answers certainly contain obvious components of music, but can't these components be broken down into more basic elements?

"You're thinking way too much," I tell them. "A melody is made up of notes strung together. Tempo can be broken down into beats."

The more they debate the possibilities, the further away they get from the true solution. Their answers become more random. Classroom chaos ensues.

In my frustration, I yell, "Stop! Quiet! LISTEN!!!"

They freeze. After some time, with most of them holding their breaths and in the absence of their chatter, one of them finally gets it - one of the basic musical elements.

Silence.

"But isn't silence the nonexistence of music?" one would ask.

"Not at all," I'd counter, "because what is the opposite of silence?"

With further explanation they begin to understand.

Broken down into its most basic elements, music is made up of "sound" and "silence." Some silences are measured, as with silent notes of a determined or proportioned duration known as "rests," and some are unmeasured, allowing time for dramatic effect or a singer's breath, for example.

Great orators and actors know the power of the pause. Equally great communicators of music explore and exploit the power of silence. Understanding the potential and affect of silence within a piece of music humanizes the rendering of a musical performance.

Let's be grateful a concert experience featuring live musicians cannot be totally replaced by a computer. You can program silences into a computer, but a living musician can use silence within a performance as an immediate response to the musical moment, the audience's interaction with the performer, or the hall's acoustic properties. Music at its most intimate or powerful instant can be when there is no sound at all.

Artur Schnabel (1882-1951), legendary Austrian pianist and interpreter of Beethoven's piano music, said it best: "The notes I handle no better than many pianists. But the pauses between the notes - ah, that is where the art resides!"

Steven Karidoyanes is the conductor of the Plymouth (Mass.) Philharmonic Orchestra, Masterworks Chorale, and the New England Conservatory Youth Symphony. Submit your questions regarding music or ideas for this column to MusicMatters.PlymouthPhil@gmail.com

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