The below video is of Sting’s acceptance speech at the Polar Music Awards in Sweden. This award is the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for Music.
In his speech, Sting shares that his most powerful realisation as a composer and musician is the use of silence with sound.
The implications of understanding what is meant by this realisation are profound, because it speaks to all of us on many levels!
Silence can be a gap between sound, it can be used to enhance what was previous, or create anticipation for what is to come.
However the resounding realisation is that silence is not in opposition to sound, or a balance to sound, it is the continuous, unchanging background, whether sound is present or absent! The silence is not and cannot be an absence, for where could it go?
In movement training, I use the term listening. This listening is not sense-perception, although it does include it. It is global awareness of what is happening in the posture-movement.
Whether I am still in the posture to understand orientation, connection, length or pressure, listening is present. If I begin to move, I don’t want to lose what was present in the stillness, and I listen to the quality of my movement gliding.
Silence/listening/space are the knowing background for the qualities of sound, notes, melody, sensation, perception and gliding.
We can never exhaust the exploration of music and movement. They are to be enjoyed as we journey through life, in an ever-deepening appreciation.
Please enjoy Sting’s speech.