“Silence”
is the name of a book by John Cage, and many composers talk about the
importance of silence in music, but one doesn't actually hear much of
it in the classical repertoire, or any other repertoire. In fact,
silences longer than three seconds are extremely rare in all kinds of
music.
Early in 1999 I had some ideas for short pieces that could sustain the interest despite the fact that they were mostly silence. After I had written these pieces, I found another way of writing music that permitted long and frequent silences, and then another, and another, and before long I was devoting all my time to a collection of organ pieces. My music had always been minimal in some way, but this was quite another way, and now I began really listening to the silence, or rather to the silences, noting how different one could be from another, and enjoying the freedom that silence gives to listeners. At first I had a rule that each piece must be at least 3/4 silence, but later I decided that I would simply permit as much silence as possible, without allowing the music to actually stop.
—Tom Johnson
Early in 1999 I had some ideas for short pieces that could sustain the interest despite the fact that they were mostly silence. After I had written these pieces, I found another way of writing music that permitted long and frequent silences, and then another, and another, and before long I was devoting all my time to a collection of organ pieces. My music had always been minimal in some way, but this was quite another way, and now I began really listening to the silence, or rather to the silences, noting how different one could be from another, and enjoying the freedom that silence gives to listeners. At first I had a rule that each piece must be at least 3/4 silence, but later I decided that I would simply permit as much silence as possible, without allowing the music to actually stop.
—Tom Johnson
