"Music is the Silence Between the Notes." Claude Debussy
Have you ever sat down and zoned out in like a class room or just on your own? Not listening but still hearing. That is silence and what comes with quiet is a kind of peaceful contemplation. And in our busy life we never just sit down to think about the lack of sound.
John Cage is a musical theorist whose goal is to make beautiful noises using unconventional messages and one of his most famous songs is 4'33'' which is 4 minutes and 33 seconds of silence. But if you look at the sheet music for it, you'll see that he has all these dynamic markings which have no affect on the piece in any way. I personally interpret this as a representation of what silence means to people and the fact that people take the slow times for granted. It could also be thought of the idea that the small things don't matter and that just avoiding something fixes it for you. I has also been said to be a metaphor for suicide, with death being the silence and the dynamics being your issues. But what is easily the most interesting is that so much can be interpreted from nothing.
A film that makes excellent use of nothing is No Country for Old Men, in which the only music you hear is at 2 hours and 3 minutes in when the film ends and the credits kick in. An interesting choice because this film is not short of suspense and just goes to show that when there is nothing then all there is, is the sound of people.
"There is no such thing as empty space or time." John Cage
Have you ever sat down and zoned out in like a class room or just on your own? Not listening but still hearing. That is silence and what comes with quiet is a kind of peaceful contemplation. And in our busy life we never just sit down to think about the lack of sound.
John Cage is a musical theorist whose goal is to make beautiful noises using unconventional messages and one of his most famous songs is 4'33'' which is 4 minutes and 33 seconds of silence. But if you look at the sheet music for it, you'll see that he has all these dynamic markings which have no affect on the piece in any way. I personally interpret this as a representation of what silence means to people and the fact that people take the slow times for granted. It could also be thought of the idea that the small things don't matter and that just avoiding something fixes it for you. I has also been said to be a metaphor for suicide, with death being the silence and the dynamics being your issues. But what is easily the most interesting is that so much can be interpreted from nothing.
A film that makes excellent use of nothing is No Country for Old Men, in which the only music you hear is at 2 hours and 3 minutes in when the film ends and the credits kick in. An interesting choice because this film is not short of suspense and just goes to show that when there is nothing then all there is, is the sound of people.
"There is no such thing as empty space or time." John Cage