Silence in Webern: listening to Op. 30 from Cage and  Boulez's  thoughts about silence

Authors

  • Isis Biazioli Universidade de São Paulo. Escola de Comunicações e Artes
  • Paulo de Tarso Salles Universidade de São Paulo. Escola de Comunicações e Artes

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.11606/rm.v13i1.55107

Keywords:

Anton Webern, John Cage, Pierre Boulez, Silence, Variations for Orchestra Op. 30

Abstract

This work intends to confront two analytical conceptions about the silence in the work of Anton Webern. John Cage believed that the rests were linked to the rhythmic structures in Webern and Pierre Boulez thought the silence in Webern as part of the pitch organization. We shall illustrate these approaches from the observation of the score and listening attentively to the Variations for Orchestra Op 30. We also will make use of bibliographic production that show us the two points of view about the webernian repertoire, as well as analytical works that refer to the musical work in question. Thus, we see that the two concepts are not mutually excluding. The silence is part of both the organization of durations (rhythmic motifs that contain sounds and silences) as the pitch organization (series segmentation and individualization of the sound are reached from the manipulation of rests).

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References

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Published

2012-06-17

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Biazioli, I., & Salles, P. de T. (2012). Silence in Webern: listening to Op. 30 from Cage and  Boulez’s  thoughts about silence. Revista Música, 13(1), 96-135. https://doi.org/10.11606/rm.v13i1.55107