Sound as Silence: Nothingness in the Music of Anton Webern and John Cage

Chenyu Bu

doi:10.6017/dupjbc.v7i1.12733

Abstract

Sound as Silence: Nothingness in the Music of Anton Webern and John Cage

Highlights

Ever since the rise of modern science, the world has no longer been experienced as an ‘enchanted garden,’ where nature was meaningful and governed by intrinsic value-filled orders
When I consider the short duration of my life, swallowed up in an eternity before and after, the little space I fill engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces whereof I know nothing, and which know nothing of me, I am terrified
Given that silence as the non-being of sound has its origin and foundation in Sartrean nothingness, I discuss the approach to silence in contemporary classical music; in the third movement of Five Pieces for Orchestra by Anton Webern25 and 4’33” by John Cage26 as a way of evoking an experience of Sartrean nothingness

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Ever since the rise of modern science, the world has no longer been experienced as an ‘enchanted garden,’ where nature was meaningful and governed by intrinsic value-filled orders. I extend the notion of nothingness to silence in contrast with sound and discuss silence as an act of expression and artistic interrogation in contemporary classical music. I propose beginning our discussion with a reconstruction of Sartre’s deduction for nothingness through a regressive course of arguments that traces back to being’s relation to the world. That varying techniques in music approach silence differently, I focus on contemporary repertoires and analyze the role of silence in the third movement of Five Pieces for Orchestra by Anton Webern and 4’33” by John Cage as an embodiment of nothingness in the sound-space

NON-BEING AND THE ORIGIN OF NOTHINGNESS

The phrase “total sound-space” refers to John Cage’s discussion of sound

SILENCE AS NON-BEING OF SOUND

IMPLICATION