SILENCE

A collaboration with Mezzo-Sopran Anna Smith

Pascal observes that all of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone. Omikron approves.

Silence seems to be ‘un mot glissant’, taking on multiple cloaks. It can be inviting or confronting, unifying or isolating, allowing for freedom or repression. Silence can be a form of resistance or submission, punishment or reward. The silence of autumn is not the same as the silence of spring. The silence of youth is not the same as the silence of age, and the silence of midday is not the same as the silence of midnight, while the silence in the monk’s cell couldn’t be more different that the one in the prison’s cell.

To me, the beautiful transition from a great to a loving friendship, is revealed in the magnitude of intimate silence shared together. An utter silence giving birth to a deeply inexpressible connection.

Quintessentially, ‘all profound things, and emotions of things are preceded and amended by Silence. Silence is the general consecration of the universe.” Well put, Melville! Nothing to add here.

Oh wait .. maybe a quick Heideggerian take on the encircled nature between Being and Silence?

‘Being can never be possessed. Being is always a gift, a temporary gift. Since it is not forever, the gift of life is at the same time the gift of death, and the gift of death is simultaneously the gift of life.
By gift I mean that fleeting grace, that occurs in each unrepeatable instant, even in times of darkness...

Silence is the opening to the wonder of this grace.’