Our life resembles a marathon race, and even with obstacles. We are in a hurry to do all things, we want to be in time everything possible and impossible. In constant city rush, in noise and roar, we sometimes dream of peace and silence. Silence seems to us a desired goal, a symbol of rest and relaxation. But in the word "silence" we subconsciously put not only the meaning of the absence of sounds. The concept of silence is with each of us. This is some kind of almost mystical feeling. So what is silence?
Silence as a Physical Phenomenon
Silence is defined as the absence of sound. Sound is vibrations that propagate in different environments. A person hears a certain range of sound frequencies from 15 to 20,000 Hz. On Earth, in natural conditions, there are no places where there is no environment for the transmission of sound vibrations. This is air, and water, and solid media. Sounds are transmitted everywhere, only the propagation speed changes. For scientific and research purposes, sound chambers were invented. These are cameras that are isolated from sounds, they do not receive any sound from the outside. This is achieved by processing the walls, floor and ceiling with special sound-absorbing, acoustic materials.
To prevent the transmission of sounds along the building structure and there were no contacts with the environment, these cameras are suspended inside on chains. But even in such special rooms there is no absolute silence for a person. We can hear the sound of our heartbeat, the sounds of breathing. There is no absolute silence on Earth. But each of us knows that there is silence. And for each person there is silence. We feel it differently. The sense of silence can be called the sixth sense of man.
Types of silence
Silence is always different. For each place, for each landscape, for each weather, it is different. Silence consists of a huge number of tiny sounds that affect our subconscious. In the forest it is the rustle of foliage, the crunch of branches, the chatter of insects. On the seashore it is the sound of the surf, the creak of sand. All these noises we don’t realize create a sensation that affects our emotions. Silence hypnotizes us. If we are sad, our sadness can either intensify or dissipate. If we rejoice, then in silence joy can also be perceived differently.
In any space, sound not only spreads in a straight line, sound waves are reflected from all surfaces: from the floor, ceiling, objects. Therefore, the sound atmosphere consists of direct and reflected sounds. In acoustics, there is the concept of "reverberation time." This is the decay time of the sound. And for a sense of silence, reverb time is also very important.
Dead with braids stand
People at all times perceived silence as a phenomenon that contains some information about events, sometimes a warning. It is no accident that the language has many stable combinations with the word silence. This is "dead silence", "ringing silence", etc. These phraseological units have a certain emotional connotation. We say this when we want to enhance the impression of the story.
The origin of the phrase "dead silence" is associated with the concept of death. We say: "Quietly, like in a coffin." Hence the synonym - deathly silence. This silence contains a threat, a secret, causes fear.
The night is quiet
Each of us sometimes really wants to wait for silence in the evening. Annoying screams under the window, including neighbors drill, dripping faucet in the kitchen. But when the night silence finally comes, it does not always bring us peace.
This silence contains the whole world, sometimes mysterious, sometimes benevolent, sometimes hostile. What thoughts and visions only do not visit us in the silence of the night! At this time, crimes are committed, scientific discoveries are made, important decisions are made, great works are written.
Silence in literature
Many writers and poets wrote about silence. Gogol, Pushkin, Bunin, Yesenin. Mandelstam. What is silence? There is silence for everyone. A collection of poems by the symbolist poet Balmont is called Silence. The novel of Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk is called "House of Silence." In 1962, Yuri Bondarev wrote the famous novel "Silence". In all these works, different stories, different heroes, different times. But in each of them there is an invisible image of silence.
Silence in painting
There is a fantastic assumption that on the canvas of the artist his mental image remains forever. These are the feelings and thoughts that the author experienced while working on the picture. Looking at some works, you begin to believe in it.
In some paintings by Shishkin, Aivazovsky, Kuindzhi, Levitan, the viewer physically feels silence. Each canvas has its own silence. Sometimes disturbing, sometimes pacifying, sometimes oppressive.
About his painting "Above Eternal Peace" I. Levitan wrote that in this silence there is horror and fear in which future generations have drowned and will still drown. And looking at this picture, you begin to believe that the mental image is a reality. Why else is there a heart-rending cry in our ears when we look at the picture of Munch? And the bright, seemingly joyful paintings by Gustav Klimt “Kiss” and “Hugs” cause a feeling of silence. What is the silence inside the artist? We are trying to understand this by looking at the picture.
Silence in music
The title of the title sounds like an oxymoron. Nevertheless, silence in music is very important. As O. Mandelstam wrote:
There is no higher music than silence.
Composers used pauses to emphasize the expressiveness of the sound, add drama, and enhance emotions. A pause in music is a stop on the run, interruption of breathing, the last doubts before take-off. Pauses have different durations - from 1/64 to several measures. A general pause means the cessation of the entire orchestra. This is a powerful expressive tool. Both Bach and Beethoven used it. In modern music, the so-called cadence visual is sometimes used. For example, at Schnittke, a musician plays the violin higher and higher and higher, and when it seems that everything is exhausted, the bow rises above the violin and moves through the air at the pace of the music. A pause in music resembles a still image in a movie.
American composer John Cage presented to the public his work 4ʹ33ʹ. It consists of three parts and lasts 4 minutes 33 seconds. During the performance, the orchestra on stage does not make a sound. The composer believed that the content of each part is the sounds that the hall is always filled with. Just as white is a mixture of all colors, so silence contains all the music.
There is no answer to the question of what silence is. There is silence for everyone.