A Call for Silence (review)

A Call for Silence (released in February of 2004 by the Sonic Arts Network), curated by Nicholas Collins (Chair of the Department of Sound at the Art Institute of Chicago) is a collection containing 34 tracks that range from conceptual pieces to sound documents (unmanipulated sounds meant to document a time and location), to performance-based compositions, to tape-based compositions. As one might expect, much of the inspiration for the collection is John Cage's infamous work, 4'33" (1952). The project also includes extensive notes, including no less than three essays.

The introductory essay by Mr. Collins speaks to the ever-increasing preciousness of silence. It also speaks to current interest in lo-fidelity music production techniques, which may be seen as somewhat of a backlash to the quasi-fetishistic nature of the world of hi-fidelity. On a more humorous level, Mr. Collins relates the project to an old lecher's quip: "a drink before and a cigarette after are the three best things in life." Several of the works in this collection focus on the drink and the cigarette, editing out what had been the central material.

Daniel Levitin's essay, "The Rose Mary Woods/Nixon Tapes," is compelling in that he makes the case for the eighteen-and-a-half-minute gap in a reel-to-reel tape recorded in the White House during the Nixon administration as the second most famous silence of recent time. He then goes on to attribute the most famous silence to the essential part of a Jack Benny joke. Here Mr. Levitin identifies (intentionally or unintentionally) a functional approach to silence. This approach is a technique which I refer to as "nothing is funny." It is the silences in Benny's delivery which instill hilarity. It is the silence that follows the trombone solo in Aaron Copland's Rodeo that renders the melody humorous. It is the "nothing" that Andy Kaufman performs during his infamous "Mighty Mouse" routine (lip-synching to a recording of the "Mighty Mouse Theme," but only on the line "Here I come to save the day").

The closing essay of the liner notes, "The Sounds of Silence: John Cage and 4'33"," by Larry Solomon, is somewhat expected. However, the author explores the genesis of Cage's piece. In particular, he focuses on an excerpt from "The Art of Noises" by Luigi Russolo (1913), as well as Cage's mention of this work in a 1948 lecture at Vassar College. Many writings on this landmark piece deal with the impact of the work on society after its premiere. Mr. Solomon's essay is refreshing in the way that it looks back to the ideas that led Cage to frame silence in the manner that he did.

Another trend of the collection is the number of pieces that reference Alvin Lucier's landmark work I am sitting in a room. Included are How Many People Are In This Room? by Kapital Band 1, and Richard Beard's I Am Not Sitting In a Room. Such references serve to trivialize the works, casting them as being derivative, and not being able to stand on their own. Mr. Lucier himself contributes a subtle work entitled Quiet Coffee, where ambient sounds are recorded from within Turkish coffee pot.

Credited to Matt Rogalsky and George W. Bush, Two Minutes Fifty Seconds Silence for the USA utilizes the President's address of 17 March 2003, where he gave a 48 hour ultimatum to Saddam Hussein. Originally some 13 minutes in length, Mr. Rogalsky edited the words out, leaving reverberation and mouth sounds. The reverberation has a very pitched, percussive flavor that is almost melodic.

Thomas Joyce uses a similar technique in his work Unspoken Conversations. Having edited the words out of a recorded conversation, Mr. Joyce creates a landscape of vocal percussive sounds. The use...