DesDownunder's Blog

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

The only thing I don't understand is why you'd be reading anything written by Claude Debussy.

In fact, I never knew he ever wrote anything.

C

AHa Yes, I knew the Debussy quote, but mine is different in that it is a play on the word 'still'

"The silence between the notes is still music."

So the silence is still music in the Debussy sense, but it is also "still (as in silent) music"

Oh, never mind me, I'm getting old. older, elderly.

Then I think you should have written it, "With apologies to Monsieur Debussy, the silence between the notes is still music.

But I obviously overlooked the quip. If you're looking for depth in someone's analysis, don't look at me.

C

Last year while watching Ronan Parks on youtube I clicked on another kid singing the same tune. It seemed to me that the difference between them was indeed how they moved from note to note rather than what they did with the notes themselves.

You and Debussy are right... and if you think about the technology, you have almost certainly heard more music than he ever had the opportunity to hear... and that's quite a thought too

Another way to consider movement from note to note is to realise the difference between a concert performance and a staged performance.

The silence or pause, holds the audience in anticipation, in suspense and expectation, then when the moment is right, the drama is revealed through the silence connecting the notes.

This is not confined to music. Most actors know the dramatic value of pausing between words and even between syllables.

Elevator music is predominantly continuous without any appreciable pauses at all; it just drones on and on.

As for hearing more music than Debussy, I guess that means I have heard more silence too?

The thing that gets me about Only Boys Aloud is that they all seem to get maximum enjoyment from understanding the dramatic emphasis they apply to their singing. It's as if they are sharing a secret with us, the listeners.

Whilst many people like the perfect notes of the perfect singer, I side with Wagner when he said he wasn't worried about the singers being perfect, just so long as the drama was conveyed. After all he composed, music-dramas.

It isn't just classical opera either. Listen to Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Queen, and Broadway musicals, and you will find songs full of soaring sounds and thuds, punctuated by pauses all beating to the rhythm of your heart and soul.