# Silence in Music



## Mephistopheles (Sep 3, 2012)

Someone, somewhere, somehow, some time, some place has probably said that music is as much about the silences between the notes as the notes themselves. There is tension in the silence, be it the calm before the storm, the anticipation of a precipice, or a fundamental attribute of a rhythmic motif. Are there any examples you can think of where, even if it just lasts a few seconds or even less, a moment or more of silence is absolutely essential to a passage of music?


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## pierrot (Mar 26, 2012)

The first composer that comes to mind is Arvo Pärt, his sense of dramatic tension is unmatchable.


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## Lunasong (Mar 15, 2011)

“Music is the silence between the notes.” Claude Debussy


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

One of the most memorable examples to me is the silence that punctuates the jarring transition in the 1st movement of Tchaikovsky's Pathetique Symphony. That really depressing yet beautiful melody, I think it fades off with a clarinet solo? And then the silence that follows is ended by a very loud and nasty chord and collection of timbres, followed by a fast paced and turbulent section.


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## GraemeG (Jun 30, 2009)

It's the silence that follows an unresolved discord that really raises the hairs on the back of your neck.
The soul of Barber's Adagio for Strings *is* the long silence after the climax of the work.
And similarly, the 2nd movement of Schubert 9 crescendos to a massive discord, after which... silence. Every fibre in every muscle of your body is taut until the music resumes.

And that's not to mention the pregnant chasms between the final pillars of sound at the end of Sibelius 5.

I think we've had this discussion...
GG


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

GraemeG said:


> And that's not to mention the pregnant chasms between the final pillars of sound at the end of Sibelius 5.


Some brilliant descriptive writing there. I really want to hear what pregnant chasms between pillars of sound sound like! I don't think I've yet experienced that work in full, so thank you.


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

I love the quiet build up and little silences from about 0:43 - 1:52. The first nine or ten minutes of Mahler's Symphony 3 is AMAZING, some of my favorite symphonic music.


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## Ondine (Aug 24, 2012)

In Beethoven's fifth there is a kind of outstanding silence -if not at all- between the the end of the Scherzo and the final Allegro.


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## Lisztian (Oct 10, 2011)

This piece, maybe my favourite of Liszt's tone poems, uses silence very well to contribute to the psychological feelings of desolation and emptiness, caused by the futility and destruction, of war.


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## drpraetorus (Aug 9, 2012)

Wagner Prelude to Tristan and Isolde and the Prelude to Parsifall


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

After zero research, I have determined that CPE Bach predated everyone else so far mentioned in his use of silences.


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## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

Maybe I'm wrong, but I tend to think that well used silences are more an achievement of the conductor, not the composer.


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## dionisio (Jul 30, 2012)

After Tristan and Isolde drank the potion.


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## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

While the true moments of silence are only in milliseconds, this is what first came to mind:

From 4:29 through the end of the 2nd movement




I agree with Xaltotun


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## Praeludium (Oct 9, 2011)

Takemitsu !
Quietness and silence..


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## Dimboukas (Oct 12, 2011)

Bach has almost never silence in his music (except of course when there is a _da capo_) and I find this fantastic! Not because I don't like silence but because this makes his music so characteristic.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Someone is going to mention John Cage, but it won't be me.


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## Mephistopheles (Sep 3, 2012)

Manxfeeder said:


> Someone is going to mention John Cage, but it won't be me.


Ah, but I asked for silence _in music_ and I don't believe John Cage wrote any music.


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

Beethoven's Grosse Fuge starts with many pregnant pauses leading up to the start of the main fugal part after about 1 minute. I love that last pause before the first violin initiates the fugue.


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## BurningDesire (Jul 15, 2012)

Mephistopheles said:


> Ah, but I asked for silence _in music_ and I don't believe John Cage wrote any music.


>_> Astounding ignorance.


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

Manxfeeder said:


> Someone is going to mention John Cage, but it won't be me.


Alright, let me mention it then: _4'33"_.


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

Scriabin - Poem of Ecstasy -> right after the climax


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## Mephistopheles (Sep 3, 2012)

BurningDesire said:


> >_> Astounding ignorance.


>_> Astounding lack of humour.


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## Andreas (Apr 27, 2012)

One of the most striking examples I know is the beginning of Schnittke's second violin sonata: short outbursts of violent music separated by endless streches of silence.

Bruckner must be mentioned here, too. He uses rests mainly to highlight the structure of his lenghty movements, but in the original scherzo of his Fourth he uses them in a bit more off-putting way.


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## Lunasong (Mar 15, 2011)

From today's reddit, but it made me think that the silence sometimes gets your attention more than the notes. You can have music on in the background and, if the composer has judiciously inserted moments of silence, it focuses your attention back on what is happening because he/she creates a moment of anticipation..? Hoping this makes sense; it's difficult for me to explain.

Perhaps because, in today's world, we have a tendency to avoid silence, which perhaps has a correlation with truly listening and paying attention to anything/anyone.


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

Start to listen this at 6:40, there's a brief and calculated silence at 6:54 which sounds great:


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Hilltroll72 said:


> After zero research, I have determined that CPE Bach predated everyone else so far mentioned in his use of silences.


His older brother was into that as well, and so was his godfather Telemann.


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