Music for the soul

Hi,

Speech pathologists infer that pauses while speaking is dreaded, even by orators. Ancestral wisdom suggests "True words are never spoken". Corollary: Silence is golden.

I cannot agree more with these basic truths. Especially, when my friends complain about the deteriorating state of modern music.

After listening to music made in the 50s and that made now, I could sense a basic difference. That made in the 50s had a lot of pauses in it. The modern versions hardly pause in between. This could be a reason why music made in yester-years still lingers.

I also sensed, modern music made in the classical / country genre has retained the pauses and the interspersions of silence. This retention, I think, has helped this genre of music to achieve vintage status, despite being modern.

I was listening to a bunch of CDs laden with Carnatic music over this weekend. I was spellbound by the richness and finesse of what I heard. I observed the frequent, smart interspersions of silence as the music flowed.

Interestingly, as I heard more and more of these CDs, the silence between a track and the succeeding track was very pleasant. In fact, it was more pleasant than the music itself!

My learning: Silence is not only golden, but could also be the best music you ever heard!!

Thanks

Vijay