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
Silence as Holding Space
The last music AMM made together was silence. After an hour or so, Rowe having fallen quiet a minute or so before, Prévost, too, came to a pause, and they both sat poised, the music, the musicians, and the audience alike all deciding whether or not it should continue, before the applause broke in. Heavily inflected by the framing, the history, the circumstances and the occasion of the concert, that silence was not just about absence or farewell. […] AMM is made up, not only of the music and those who play it, but also the space in which they make it, space which includes everyone else in that room. And in that closing silence, it felt as if AMM was opening up not only to everyone in the room, but to all the listeners and players not in the room, living and dead. […] This ending was not just an ending, but a holding space, in Prévost’s words, ‘marking a journey to a bright nowhere,’ sometimes brighter and sometimes dimmer, but visible on the horizon still. (Grundy, 2022)
Particularly interesting is the description of the closing silence as a “holding space” that marks a journey to a bright nowhere.Note the inclusion of the audience as part of the room’s soundscape. The embodiment of silence at the end of the AMM concert highlights how sound, space, and bodily experiences are deeply interconnected. Both the physical and architectural dimensions of silence play a role in musical expression and experience. The silence here serves multiple framing functions: bringing a historical era to a close, finishing the concert, and paying tribute to the non-present players in the room. And these functions are valid for both the performers and the audience, who together share that final silence.