I'm wondering if silence itself is perhaps the mystery at the heart of music? And is silence the most perfect music of all? (Sting, in his speech on the occasion of his acceptance of an honorary doctorate from the Berklee College of Music on 15 May, 1994.) [1] What is music? This question investigates the borderline between music and what can no longer be considered music. It is the question of the frame of music since the frame is what distinguishes it as music, what 'produces' music. Without it, music is not music. It can be asked whether the frame is central or marginal, essential or supplemental. The frame itself is not music. Once the frame encloses the music and makes music music, it is external to the music. But as a frame of music, it also belongs to the music. Can we say that the frame is (n)either simply inside (n)or outside music? [2] Music. Privileged over noise and silence. Opposed to noise and silence. Noise and silence seem to be on its outside, excluded in and by music. Through the deconstruction of (hierarchically ordered) binary oppositions, Derrida demonstrates that one pole of such oppositions cannot exist without the other. Indeed, one part is always already part of (the definition of) the other as well. As applied to music, noise and silence have always already been part of music, noise and silence have always already been part of each other. It is this notion that I will develop further and investigate in this section of the site. In My thesis, I express my desire to indicate deconstruction in music by music(ians); can music 'read itself' in a deconstructive way? This implies that I am not solely interested in a verbal, theoretical and discursive deconstruction of the boundaries of music, noise, and silence. Primarily, my attention will focus on musicians and composers who, in and through their music, have explored the diffuse spaces between music, noise and silence, those who have questioned the frame of music out of the musical (as opposed to the textual, another opposition that could be deconstructed), those who have rejected the traditional hierarchical relations of music - noise and music - silence. That is not to say that a musical deconstruction simply seeks to present the illusion of some pure and simple absence of a frame, or that it would re-frame music with some perfect, apt and truthful new frame. A deconstructive strategy will consist of examining whether it is at all possible to create a frame that would indeed lay down an unequivocal definition. Deconstruction exposes us to the inescapable situation of uncertainty and indeterminateness that we face when we want to distinguish music from noise, music from silence, noise from silence. [3] The works of the American composer, John Cage, have increased our understanding of the problems involved in defining music, noise and silence. Therefore, his oeuvre will be prominently featured in this section. |