Home 1. Introduction 2. Markers 3. Archive 4. Audible Markers 5. Visible Markers 6. Notational Markers 7. Conclusion
3.1. Integrated Silences 3.2. Inherent Silences 3.3. Silent Discourse 3.4. Meta-Silences 3.5. Silencings
In Denis Chouillet’s composition Je me souviens N° 4, there are no rests, no pauses, no barlines. The end of the piece tapers off without a notated conclusion. Yet memory is not necessarily stillness, and certainly not silence—it can be nagging, repetitive. The drawn-out sounds and the leitmotif of the descending sixth interval create an atmosphere of silence as if it were a silence lying ‘‘beneath the chatter of words’’ (Merleau-Ponty, 1962, p. 214). When performing this piece, I try to be very subtle about embodied markers, not drawing attention to my gestures. The silences are relative ones that lie beneath the notes.
