In listening to Arvo Part’s Cantus in Memorium, I am struck by the silence.
Silence is programmed into
the score as part of the music. This silence was not absence, of waiting for musicians
to play the next notes. It was presence. It was not waiting for something to
happen. It was already happening, because we were waiting in the concert hall,
and listening.
When we go into nature, we travel
with the thousands of thoughts that crowd our head. We enter with the noises of
the city ringing in our ears. We have learned to tune out much of what we hear
going on around us in our concrete environment.
