# Most Potent Uses of Silence



## Falstaft (Mar 27, 2010)

Here's a topic I don't think has been given its own thread. We've had a lengthy discussion on the possibility of silence-as-music (http://www.talkclassical.com/4629-silence-music.html). But I think we can all agree that *strategic* use of silence within a composition can be one of the most powerful resources in a composer's tool-belt. With the right context, a short breath, a measure of rests, a grand pause, even the break between movements -- these can become moments of unbearable anticipation, beauty, or sadness. Relative silence, where most activity dies away, leaving only a single line of softly played music (ex: a drone, a bearly audible timpani roll, or lasting decay), also has great potential for structuring our listening.

So, what are some great examples of silence in classical music? Who are composers who seem best able to channel empty gulfs of sound? I find this a fairly hard question, actually, since I am not used to paying to attention to "non eventful" spans of music, and would like help from you all in honing this aspect of my hearing!

Alternatively, who are some composers you think would most benefit from inserting some more rests in their music from time to time? 

I'll just offer a few examples to get the ball rolling:

*Dvorak 9th Symphony, Largo, Last Statement of Main Theme*. There is a pause during the B-Section of this theme (right before the solo string rendition) that has got to be the most painfully nostalgic moment in all Dvorak for me. They are going along playing the sweet subdominant portion of the melody, and just seem to let go in the middle of the phrase. That silence could last forever, and I would be happy.

*Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 4 Op7, Second Movement Beginning.* This is just the first example I could come up with for LvB's wonderful "start-and-stop" method. Such a pregnant opening, with those holes of silence, and it makes the gradual opening up of the melody that much more powerful.

*Takemitsu Corona Beginning, *. Takemitsu seems to be a composer singlemindedly interested in silence. The beginning of this long work is, as far as I can tell, is his most extended exploration of the absence of sound. A single prepared piano motif is seperated by immense spans of nothing but the sound of its own decay. Things do pick up...


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## Air (Jul 19, 2008)

Falstaft said:


> *Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 4 Op7, Second Movement Beginning.* This is just the first example I could come up with for LvB's wonderful "start-and-stop" method. Such a pregnant opening, with those holes of silence, and it makes the gradual opening up of the melody that much more powerful.


Another obvious example of this is the _Hammerklavier_.

Schubert also uses silence to great effect in his last and greatest piano sonata, the _D. 960_.


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

The most potent use of silence ... is a silent fart.

Anyway, Haydn's _*Die Schopfung/The Creation*_, starts off very quietly. When the chorus sings "let there be light", comes silent pauses and the listener knows precisely that something big will happen soon after, and then the loud chord with "and there was light".

Early public premiere of the work in Vienna reported:-

_" ... at that moment when light broke out for the first time, one would have said that rays darted from the composer's burning eyes. The enchantment of the electrified Viennese was so general that the orchestra could not proceed for some minutes"._


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

I also like it when composers use a build up of resolution and then silence to create a "false" ending. I think this happens in Schubert's _Trout Quintet_ finale, and also the end of Ligeti's _String Quartet No. 1_. Obviously, this is using silence to create an illusion of finality, but it's only a facade, as the "real" ending then proceeds in the following bars. This can be quite surprising, even if one has heard the work many times...


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## Earthling (May 21, 2010)

Good topic! 

*Debussy: The Afternoon of a Faun*
Right after the opening solo flute, the horns and harp play a bar, then a bar of silence, and then start up again. Contextually, to me, it is full of mystery-- I don't even want to make a single move in that moment!
*
Sibelius: Tapiola*
Also near the beginning. Its funny, because that silence always lasts much longer than I expect it to-- it seems to almost a tentative hesitation before going in further.

*Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring*
There's a silence and one or two really strange chords right before the Adoration of the Earth (the end of Part I). That silence is sheer terror to me!
*
Stravinsky: Orpheus *
There is the scene where Orpheus is leading Eurydice up out of Hades and he takes off the blindfold to look back at her: it is an odd moment because there is all this graceful counterpoint in the strings, it simply stops for a few beats, and then continues on. It is such an understated scene in the ballet and it works so well.


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## World Violist (May 31, 2007)

Arvo Part is, to my mind, the embodiment of silence in music. It's incredible how much potency his silences pack. For example, the famous piano piece "Fur Alina"... the spaces in between the notes are actually more important to me than the notes themselves. Another that springs to mind is the end of his "In Memoriam Benjamin Britten," in which everything reaches its loudest point on a low A and then just cuts off, leaving the sound of the ringing bell hanging in the air. It's incredibly powerful.

As for more "conventional" (oh, how I'm beginning to hate that word!) silences, Mahler is pretty full of them. Maybe most notable is the finale of the 2nd symphony, especially the big turning point, the Grosse Appel, whatever you want to call it, in which, from nothing, a small interlude rises up, falls back into silence... out of which the choir begins their glorious ascent. Also, of course, the last movement of the 9th symphony, especially the unbelievable coda; constant lapses into total silence, but miraculously sustained.


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## GraemeG (Jun 30, 2009)

The obvious one, as mentioned by me in another thread just recently; the grand pause at the climax of Barber's _Adagio for Strings_; a friend of mine described this silence as her 'favourite piece of music in the world. THis particuar silence is packed full as well; although it is silent, it's the loudest silence in the world.

Also, the final chords of Sibelius 5 are separated by a series of equally meaningful silences.

The last note of Mahler 6 has three minutes of silence after it (not written in the score, but implied); sadly, audiences tend to interrupt before this silence has finished sounding...
cheers,
G


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

I got one!

Kokopeli by Katherine Hoover is an _a capella_ flute piece, and it depicts the character of Kokopeli in Native American legend of the Southwest. There are many points marked in the music with a breath notation, which means take a real pause in the music. The pauses represent how the music would echo in the silent canyons, and would take a little while to die away.

It's an excellent contemporary classic in Flute Repertoire (made in 1990).


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## 151 (Jun 14, 2010)

Without silence, there can be no loudness.

or something...


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Great topic! I searched my memory and can think of no examples other than the ubiquitous Beethoven, the master of the pregnant pause. 

You know, I almost think Beethoven nearly pioneered that effect. I don't recall much of it in Haydn. Perhaps Mozart, but I don't listen to enough of him to be sure. Certainly I can think of no silences in the baroque. Baroque is relentless. Of course I'll be happy to be proved wrong in this theory. This is just off the top of my head.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

I also like the way Lutoslawski uses the break between a two-movement work (like his 2nd symphony) as a kind of "pivot." It can be said that the first movement is an introduction, before the break which acts like a fulcrum, and then the last movement a conclusion. The pause kind of draws a line in the sand, and provides a basic structure (the break integral to this). Lutoslawski saw the symphony (or string quartet) as a "closed form," so it's structure within that description could be very flexible...


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## gmubandgeek (Jun 8, 2010)

HarpsichordConcerto said:


> The most potent use of silence ... is a silent fart.
> 
> Anyway, Haydn's _*Die Schopfung/The Creation*_, starts off very quietly. When the chorus sings "let there be light", comes silent pauses and the listener knows precisely that something big will happen soon after, and then the loud chord with "and there was light".
> 
> ...


took the words right out of my mouth. Haydn frequently uses silence in his music. His "Oxford Symphony" in the Menuet and Trio, uses awkward silence which is musically as well as comically humorous. Also while not totally silent Haydn's "Surprise Symphony" is certainly well...a surprise.


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## The Student (Jul 4, 2010)

*True silence*

If you want to see a true silent piece, look up John Cage's 4'33" on you tube.


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## Nix (Feb 20, 2010)

Weston said:


> You know, I almost think Beethoven nearly pioneered that effect. I don't recall much of it in Haydn. Perhaps Mozart, but I don't listen to enough of him to be sure. Certainly I can think of no silences in the baroque. Baroque is relentless. Of course I'll be happy to be proved wrong in this theory. This is just off the top of my head.


Mozart uses silence quite a bit in his piano pieces. The Fantasia in d minor comes to mind.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

The Student said:


> If you want to see a true silent piece, look up John Cage's 4'33" on you tube.


Yes, but the sound quality is terrible on those YouTube videos and some of the performances of that piece are amateurish at best.


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## The Student (Jul 4, 2010)

Weston said:


> Yes, but the sound quality is terrible on those YouTube videos and some of the performances of that piece are amateurish at best.


No, no, no! I totally agree! It is the message of silence that I was trying to bring to light!


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## Earthling (May 21, 2010)

I want my silence to be at least 192 kbps if its in mp3 format!


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Weston said:


> You know, I almost think Beethoven nearly pioneered that effect. I don't recall much of it in Haydn. Perhaps Mozart, but I don't listen to enough of him to be sure. Certainly I can think of no silences in the baroque. Baroque is relentless. Of course I'll be happy to be proved wrong in this theory. This is just off the top of my head.


Today I proved myself wrong on this. I was listening to Bach's Sonata for flute and keyboard in A, BWV 1032. The second movement is loaded with interesting pauses between motifs or short phrases. It's pretty cool! The version I was hearing was more pronounced than this and seemed to lack the sharp intakes of breath I hear in this video.


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## World Violist (May 31, 2007)

I think Vivaldi (if memory serves) was responsible for a good few of these pauses... unless they were irksomely inserted by zealous performers right before the final cadence...


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## JMJ (Jul 9, 2010)

In Stockhausen's music silence plays a big role and at﻿ times the silence is so provocative.


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## Chi_townPhilly (Apr 21, 2007)

We're halfway down the second page of this thread... and no mentions of Bruckner, yet(?)

Maybe it's because one doesn't necessarily view Bruckner's uses of G.P.s as potent in an obviously dramatic way.

One pretty memorable 'silence-effect' that I'd have to say was 'conductor-driven' rather than 'composer-driven' was the Mehta/New York 10000th concert Mahler 2nd. In the First Movement, in the rapidly tongued brass tuttis, there was a flash of a puase between each of them. Very arresting, really.


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## World Violist (May 31, 2007)

Oh my gosh BRUCKNER!!! That shall be forthwith amended CTP

Those big pauses just before the codas of the last movements are heart-stopping. Not to mention the adagio of the 8th. I suppose Bruckner's grand pauses are so integrated into the overall structure that it's easy to overlook them, take them for granted.


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## NEF (Jul 13, 2010)

There's this fantastic bit in Ives' 'Fourth of July' where the music 'sinks'... the polyrhythmic insanity just dies away for a second, and a single chime sounds, followed by what can only be described as some of the most raucous music that ever came from modernity. Terrifying and fantastic !!

Check it out around 5:08


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

NEF said:


> There's this fantastic bit in Ives' 'Fourth of July' where the music 'sinks'... the polyrhythmic insanity just dies away for a second, and a single chime sounds, followed by what can only be described as some of the most raucous music that ever came from modernity. Terrifying and fantastic !!
> 
> Check it out around 5:08


Indeed. >.<

I question Ives' sanity. Honestly. I believe in *clever * dissonance, but that's plain unintelligent, IMO, to use less offensive words.


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## gmubandgeek (Jun 8, 2010)

Today I was listening to Haydn's 93 symphony (surprisingly it was the first time). During the second movement the orchestra slowly diminuendo to nothing, and after a brief pause the bassoonist blasts a "C" that for lack of any other word sounds like a loud fart (totally kills the beauty of this movement >.<). Good thing this symphony doesn't have a nickname or it'd be called the "Flatulent Symphony"


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## tapio (Aug 11, 2010)

Oh, someone already wrote it! YES, BRUCKNER 8 fourth movement, a few moments before the end. Preferably with Günter Wand/BPO. A great moment of music. Only, after the silence, I was - a bit - disappinted by the conclusion. Bruckner could have done better.
The 8th turned out to be my favourite -overall Bruckner Symphony-. The Adagio! The harps! Oh yes.
I like other Bruckner Symphonies as well, but not entirely. For instance, the seventh: I listen to mvmt one and two only.


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## Falstaft (Mar 27, 2010)

tapio said:


> The Adagio! The harps! Oh yes.


Couldn't have put it better myself, tapio!

I've been thinking of a few other examples of well-used silences. One is Wagner's _Tristan Prelude_ - the gulfs between those first chords are very full in their nothingness (if that makes any sense). This is true especially of the scene in Act I right after T&I drink the love potion - the most epic "awkward/erotic silences" ever put to music.

I think Wagner might have gotten this aural effect at least partially from Liszt. There seem to be a lot of tense pauses around relatively quiet passages in his work, in some cases sounding like padding somewhat (I love the Dante Symphony, but the middle of the first movement does seem to have a lot of those sorts of indistinct silences around slightly boring material)


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## Ian Elliott (Nov 15, 2010)

I don't like most of his stuff, but John Cage's Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano (depending on the version - skip the one by the Asian lady) make ingenious use of silence-


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## mstar (Aug 14, 2013)

Oh, an absolute classic example is Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony.... The intensity of the silence in the middle of the first movement has brought me the closest ever to crying... HE UNDERSTANDS ME SO WELL!!!   

Another one? How about unpleasant silences? Like the ones between movements, when the majority of the audience feels it necessary to cough? The recording that I have of Myung Whun-Chung conducting the Seoul Philharmonic in Tchaikovksy's Sixth has unbelievable coughing between the first and the second movement.... If I'm not mistaken, there is one woman who seems to be crying out loud.... Sure, emotional, but also caught in the recording!  It's okay, though.... The coughing just really gets on my nerves....


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

I love this piece: 




Not classical (jazz), but the silence at 6:53 in this is absolutely epic:


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

Shostakovich makes a lot of noise and then punctuates it with extended periods of (near-)silence, for example, the provocative and haunting ticking sound that recurs in some of his symphonies, string quartets, concertos etc.


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## Kleinzeit (May 15, 2013)

Noticed this reawakened thread as I was heading to the Beatles-or-Stones?! thread. It's not entirely off-thread here, at this late date.

It's the isolated vocals from the big 16 minute medley at the end of Abbey Road. Just the singing as the vocal tracks are being layered. Where the music usually plays, there's silence. (where it's being recorded 'live', as in Mr. Mustard, all the music is right there, live, un-isolatable). If you like to look behind the curtain, this is fun to listen to. If you've completely internalized the music, as millions have, it's kind of uncanny.

http://www.openculture.com/2013/09/...-climactic-side-two-medley-on-abbey-road.html


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## NightHawk (Nov 3, 2011)

The silence just before the slashing A Major chord that begins Beethoven's 7th Symphony - of course, one has to know the piece a bit.


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## mstar (Aug 14, 2013)

Aaahhhh.... Another thread revived by mstar? :lol:  :tiphat:


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## spradlig (Jul 25, 2012)

Near the beginning of Strauss's _Ein Heldenleben_, just before the "critics" section, there are a few occurrences of a few seconds of silence. Several times, the orchestra (esp. strings) plays a loud phrase ending in a dominant chord, waits for a response, then repeats the phrase or a similar one, as if asking the critics for a reply. After the last thundering question from the orchestra, the critics (starting with an oboe) begin their nitpicking.


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## Beethoven10 (Jun 2, 2013)

How about towards the end of Peter Grimes, when the mob are hunting for him:
'Grimes, Grimes, Grimes, Grimes, Grimes etc..
Peter GRIMES!!! *about 5 seconds of silence*
PETER GRIMES!!! *single muted horn note*
GRIMES!!! *2 horn notes*

most shattering silence I've heard in any piece!


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## spradlig (Jul 25, 2012)

CORRECTION: it's actually Mahler's Second Symphony. See the post by Mahlerian. Sorry.

I don't know if this counts, but for one of his symphonies, the 3d I think, Mahler directs that there should be a break or silence lasting several minutes (don't know exactly how many) between a certain pair of movements (the first and second, I think). I don't know if anyone actually does this in concert. Sorry for not being more specific, but a more knowledgeable person may fill in the specifics, and Googling Mahler's 3d symphony (I'm pretty sure it is the 3d) will probably lead you to a Wikipedia article with more details.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

spradlig said:


> I don't know if this counts, but for one of his symphonies, the 3d I think, Mahler directs that there should be a break or silence lasting several minutes (don't know exactly how many) between a certain pair of movements (the first and second, I think). I don't know if anyone actually does this in concert. Sorry for not being more specific, but a more knowledgeable person may fill in the specifics, and Googling Mahler's 3d symphony (I'm pretty sure it is the 3d) will probably lead you to a Wikipedia article with more details.


It's the 2nd. Mahler calls for a gap of five minutes between the first two movements, because the moods are so different from each other. I don't think it's usually that long in practice, but most conductors put in a brief pause of some kind.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

spradlig said:


> CORRECTION: it's actually Mahler's Second Symphony. See the post by Mahlerian. Sorry.
> 
> I don't know if this counts, but for one of his symphonies, the 3d I think, Mahler directs that there should be a break or silence lasting several minutes (don't know exactly how many) between a certain pair of movements (the first and second, I think). I don't know if anyone actually does this in concert. Sorry for not being more specific, but a more knowledgeable person may fill in the specifics, and Googling Mahler's 3d symphony (I'm pretty sure it is the 3d) will probably lead you to a Wikipedia article with more details.


Hmmm now you've got me wondering what a "3D" symphony would sound like.


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

What about Alfred Schnittke's grave:










A silence with the dynamical indication fortissimo possibile.
In his piece Lux Aeterna, Ligeti asks for seven bars of complete silence (i.e., tacet) after the last chord of the piece.


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## Stargazer (Nov 9, 2011)

I had all sorts of examples, but they've all been mentioned by other posters already! Drat! 

I do think though, that properly placed silence can be incredibly powerful, but it seems to not get very much use. Everyone wants to fill up all the space with notes, notes, and more notes!


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## HaydnBearstheClock (Jul 6, 2013)

Haydn's Seven Last Words has some very good uses of silence.


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## isridgewell (Jul 2, 2013)

The opening of Elgar's Dream of Gerontius - during the orchestral opening the progress of the climax is halted by silence (Britten took the liberty of filing this silence with a bass drum roll in his recording!).


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

The ending of Sibelius's fifth symphony, where the silence between the chords makes an overwhelming impression.


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## Pennypacker (Jul 30, 2013)

At the end of Scriabin's Poem of Ecstasy, the pause between the culmination and the coda. It saved my life! My heart was ready to explode!


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## HaydnBearstheClock (Jul 6, 2013)

gmubandgeek said:


> Today I was listening to Haydn's 93 symphony (surprisingly it was the first time). During the second movement the orchestra slowly diminuendo to nothing, and after a brief pause the bassoonist blasts a "C" that for lack of any other word sounds like a loud fart (totally kills the beauty of this movement >.<). Good thing this symphony doesn't have a nickname or it'd be called the "Flatulent Symphony"


Dude, that fart IS the beauty of the movement .


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## HaydnBearstheClock (Jul 6, 2013)

Humourous silence - the Menuetto: Allegro of Haydn's symphony 104 has constant pauses which make you think: "where did the orchestra go?" .


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