Glossary

Eloquent silence communicates from the performer to the listener; non-eloquent silence might have a functional role, but does not have rhetorical or communicative value in the performance.

Framing can be created by the (audience) silence surrounding the work; conversely, sounds can frame silences. The edges of the frame may be indicated by markers.

Embodiment is the overall collection of active performer movements, gestures, postures, and facial expressions, as well as performer choices such as hairstyle and costume.

Gesture is the movement and alignment of arms and legs, fingers and toes, torso, head, and facial expression, in relation to the instrument.

Ma is a Japanese term for the space between things, often used to describe the white space on a page, for example the space between the brushstrokes in an artwork.

Markers are signals used to shift attention and thus impose silence, summon silence, or shape the perception of silence. Markers can also include audience rituals, architectural elements, and other sensory cues which influence our experience of silence. Markers are not exclusive to silence; they can also signal sounds, traditions, behaviors, actions.

Non-playing refers to the intentional absence of sound production by the performer.

Not/Knot suggests that silence can be interpreted not only as a separator but also as a knot or a tying together. Silence might be simultaneously a continuity and a discontinuity, both a knot and a not.

Performed Silence in music is a rest made visible or audible; the impression of silence created in a performance by the performer.

A Pianola is a self-playing instrument which operates on compressed air. The notes are controlled by rolls of paper with punched holes that activate individual keys.

Rests are written notations that indicate silence, stillness, absence, pulsation, breathing, or non-playing.

Figure 1: common rests indicating duration

Re-enactment is a method of copying the embodiments of an existing performer or performance, in order to better understand the performance through gestural imitation (Lüneburg).

Reflective imitation is my specific method of learning from existing performers, similar to, but less rigorous than re-enactment, in which I imitate, and then reflect upon, videos of performed silence. See my “Learning from…” videos.

Repetition (or re-rehearsing) Schechner suggests that all performance comes from repeated embodied behavior: “Performances-of art, rituals, or ordinary life-are restored bits of behaviors, twice behaved behaviors, in other words-repeated behaviors that we learned, trained for, rehearsed, etc.”

Silence is perceived stillness or quietness. There is no true silence, so in in this context, silence means relative or sensed silence.

Silencing is the act of forcing or enacting silence against a (human) being’s will.

Structural silences emphasize the structure of the composition.

Tacet is the instruction to stay silent, often used in orchestral sheet music. For example a drummer might not play until the last movement of a Mozart symphony. Her part will be marked tacet.