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Playback Listening
Topic: The silence after coda

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Posted by Romy the Cat on 12-14-2010
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Sure, talking about this subject it is impossible to avoid the Glenn Gould brilliant GPAADAK concept.

http://glenngould.ca/articles/2010/3/22/nailing-shut-the-coughin-gpaadak-as-the-first-step-to-improv.html

…. But Glen not with us anymore and we have to suffer….

Listening some exceptionally powerful performances I noticed that after some of them I do not want to talk or even to see people- I want o be with my inner-myself, soaking in my sensations and sampling my new self-understanding. I remember this summer I was visiting my local New England audio guy and after listening the typical “visiting music” I decided to play something serious.  I rarely play those things when I visit people but it was a worth environment, so I went after it. In 20 minutes, as the last note felt down I literally was not able to talk and it last for some quite time. Can you believe, me and completely silent! 

The pint is that silence after performance is very good thing and it give a lot of room for after-coda continuation of experiencing. What however is more important that silence is not the silence itself but the assurance of the silence. This week I got an interesting demonstration. The WCRB broadcasted Leonard Slatkin leading Pittsburgh Symphony  from last year with all-Rachmanonoff program. They opened the concert with Vocalise and Slatkin made an anointment before the play that the Vocalise he dedicated to the recent tragedy with Pittsburgh police and to the memory of the killed officers. In context of this dedication he explicitly asked do not applaud after the Vocalise. Then they proceeded with the Rachmanonoff piece.   The play was so-so, probably more on the bad side but after the end of the work… nothing happen. That was so unexpected and so beautiful that if I were in that Heinz Hall I would with great pleasure sit there for 10-15 minutes, BTW that way how Mahler intended after his Resurrection’s Allegro Maestoso.

Music listening turned into circus and this is very unfortunate. Home playback is a good way to fight it….

THe Cat

Posted by AOK_Farmer on 12-14-2010
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The silence after the performance, or in your mind during performance if you can pull it off, is the place where the music can freely communicate without the distractive fury and bombast of the sound. Maybe that's why the silence (nominal acoustic projected energy state) produced by the audio equipment is as, or more, important than its strict reproduction to sounds? The quality of the rooms' aural cloud that the sounds exist within...
Steve

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