Agustín Castilla-Ávila  |  Mozarteum University Salzburg, Austria

Academic supervisor: Wolfgang Gratzer

The Value of Music and the Value of Silence

Music is the silence between the notes.

Claude Debussy

At the time of the Florentine Camerata and the beginning of opera, in my opi-
nion, music had the same value as silence does today. In a quieter society back
then, experiencing music was as special as experiencing silence is in our loud
world today. For many human beings around the planet nowadays, being surro-
unded by quietness is almost impossible.
How does this change of values affect the minds of composers today?
In our hectic world, I notice different questions that I ask myself as an artist
today: How to give silence the value music used to have or work with silence as
pure material? How to write for our inner voice? How to write a minute of si-
lence? How to write for a string quartet without strings or how to use silence
to stimulate our imagination (in my opinion, the most valuable gift that nature
has given us)?
The first collection of works I  would like to present is the graphic suite
Still-Leben mit Stille (Still Life with Silence, 2008–2018).
Still-Leben mit Stille (Still Life with Silence) is intended as contemplation
focusing on the graphic value of silence in music. At the same time, it was an
opportunity for me to develop my passion for storytelling using our universal
language.
166  Agustín Castilla-Ávila

In order to help the reader understand these works (20 pieces to date),
I should explain the following aesthetic ideas on which they are based:
▬▬ Composing with values, treating rests as notes
Composing with the above-mentioned change of values in mind, treat-
ing for example rests as notes, has opened a path for me to try to answer
a number of questions involving music and silence. Rests are organized
in the works in the same way that notes traditionally were. In some cases,
I have imitated polyphonic processes, which in this case, since ‘poly-pho-
ny’ means ‘many sounds’, I like to call ‘polysiopy’.
▬▬ Physical voice and the inner voice
‘Polysiopy’ could also be described as inner-voice polyphony. Still Life
with Silence focuses on voices and sounds in one’s own mind. It reflects
the growing global interest in meditation and in the self as a reaction to
the world getting louder and louder.
▬▬ The inner imagination
With these previous ideas and through the graphical elements of music,
I continuously try to stimulate the imagination of my listeners with these
works, trying to remind them that imagination is probably the most hu-
man treasure we have inherited from nature; the difference between hu-
man beings and the rest of animals.
▬▬ Portraits
Every piece from the Still Life with Silence suite tells a unique graphic sto-
ry using elements linked to a dedicatee. In this way, I try to create differ-
ent portraits of them.
Let us now discuss some examples from the Still life with silence suite (2008–
2018).
The piece Für Christian Ofenbauer (see example 1) is composed for a string
quartet without strings, and because of that the bow has a more important role
to play in it than in traditional compositions. In fact, it is an essay about the
meaning of the bow in music in different aspects. Silence and bow are two main
elements of Kyūdō (Japanese art of archery), which is practiced by the dedica-
tee (with whom I shared interesting hours of counterpoint exercises during my
composition studies). The rests follow strict polyphonic rules, but the use of the
word ‘polyphony’ which means ‘many sounds’ seems to be inadequate in the
time of history when silence is so valuable. We should perhaps describe it as
‘inner-voice polyphony’ or ‘polysiopy’ (meaning ‘many silences’). This work has
also given me the opportunity to represent the freedom that artists enjoy today,
with its wider borders than before, through the inner words (or my thoughts?):
Wohin geht die Musik? Die Musik ist schon da! (‘Where is music going? Music
is already here!’).
 The Value of Music and the Value of Silence  167

Example 1. A. Castilla-Ávila, Still-Leben mit Stille. Für Christian Ofenbauer, b. 1–16.

Reproduced from: A. Castilla-Ávila, Still Life with Silence / Still-Leben mit Stille, Mac-
kinger Verlag, Salzburg 2018.

The dedicatee of the piece Für Jens Rossel (see example 2) is the biographer of
the Danish composer Gunnar Berg (1909–1989). The instrumentation is similar
to Berg’s work Filandres for clarinet, guitar and violin with the exception of the
harp. In the graphic dimension, it confronts the piano and the harp as objects.
The inside of the piano is very similar to a harp but placed horizontally and in-
side a resonance box. This being in a box and being free is also expressed with
lines and textures imitating the drawings that Gunnar Berg did himself (see il-
lustration 1).
The piece In Memoriam Nikolaus Harnoncourt (see example 3) is a minute
of silence for the dedicatee, one of the musicians I have most admired and to
whom I am very thankful for his work. With the instrumentation linked to his
life and a  quotation from Henry Purcell (Music for the Funeral of the Queen
Mary), it evokes the ‘Music of the Spheres’ and a mystical entrance to heaven of
the best conductor I can think of for conducting such music.
Another work that I  would like to discuss is the opera The Rest Is Silence
(2013, with my own libretto). Written after Shakespeare’s quotation from Ham-
let, the musical rest is obviously silence. This opera is very similar to those creat-
ed at the time of the Florentine Camerata (mythological theme, instrumentation,
168  Agustín Castilla-Ávila

Example 2. A. Castilla-Ávila, Still-Leben mit Stille. Für Jens Rossel, b. 1–14. Reproduced
from: A. Castilla-Ávila, Still Life with Silence / Still-Leben mit Stille, Mackinger Verlag,
Salzburg 2018.

Illustration 1. G. Berg, Drawing, 1961. Reproduced with kind permission of Jens Rosell.
 The Value of Music and the Value of Silence  169

Example 3. A.  Castilla-Ávila, Still-Leben mit Stille. In Memoriam Nikolaus Harnon­

court. Reproduced from: A. Castilla-Ávila, Still Life with Silence / Still-Leben mit Stille,
Mackinger Verlag, Salzburg 2018.

etc.), only adapted to the new values of our society. At the same time silence is
used as a  protest against the damage our civilization is doing to our planet.
I wanted to raise my voice about the environmental problems we are facing at
this moment of history.
It was composed as an attempt at creating an opera which could be perceived
in the same way by people who can hear and people who cannot. I have tried to
present the story of the opera using silence as musical material for the whole play.
The four Elements have been ill for a long time. They all have the same dis-
ease and no one can find the right cure for them. Finally, they call Hermes (the
messenger) to find a solution to their problem. They send Hermes on a journey.
He first visits Apollo and Artemisa. Unfortunately, they cannot help. Howev-
er, Apollo, the god of Prophecy, recommends going into the Underworld. They
know no cure for the Elements there. Phobos and Deimos send Hermes to Ha-
des (the god of Wealth). He is the only one who has the answer: ‘People no lon-
ger listen to us’, he states. Their greed for goods and money has grown so much
that they no longer listen to the voice of nature. Hades explains that no spoken
170  Agustín Castilla-Ávila

or sung word they produce can be heard by humans anymore: ‘No matter if you
speak, if you whisper or if you shout. They cannot hear us anymore. We do not
exist for them anymore. Scream as loud as you can. We will not be heard. They
can only hear the sound of the gold!’. Zeus, Hades’s brother, sends Pandora, the
first woman, to the Elements. She has a box in which hope can still be found.
She will bring it to the Elements. Nothing more can be done. Hermes returns to
the Elements, who are in agony. The opera ends with the last words of Hermes
waiting for Pandora: ‘Hope. The rest is silence’ (see example 4).

Example 4. A. Castilla-Ávila, The Rest Is Silence, scene 10: Hope. And the rest is silence,
b. 1–38. Reproduced from the composer’s score.

All the singers sing ‘silent lines’ (this silent opera is the first of its kind), which
follow the traditional rules of notation including dynamics, expression or ‘pitch’
(in order to help the singers use the muscles in the same way as when they sing
normally). The mute effect makes the experience much more intense for the au-
dience, who can follow the libretto projected on the stage.
 The Value of Music and the Value of Silence  171
It is essential that the whole opera should be conducted. Instead of instru-
mentalists, the instruments appear symbolically on their chairs. In the score,
the notes are replaced by rests (changing the values), but there are detailed in-
structions on expression and dynamics. The mythological history, the structure
and the symbolic instrumentation (the orchestra looks like those at the time of
the birth of the opera in Florence) are very close to the earliest operatic com-
positions.
The Government of the Region of Salzburg awarded me with the 2013 Jah-
resstipendium für Musik for The Rest Is Silence.
Whatever the beginning of the universe might have been, it was the start of
a huge composition we are all part of, with all our voices and all their echoes.
This is the reason why I believe that silence is nothing but an illusion.

Now I see that the 21st century has begun.

Ludmila Shapovalova, Kharkov University of Arts1

Bibliography

Castilla-Ávila Agustín, Still Life with Silence / Still-Leben mit Stille, Mackinger
Verlag, Salzburg 2018.
Gratzer Wolfgang, Über musikalische Polyciopie und Demokratisierung, Agustín
Castilla-Ávila (Salzburg) im Gespräch mit Wolfgang Gratzer, [in:] Pro-
ben-Prozesse. Über das Entstehen von Musik und Theater, Hg. W. Gratzer,
Ch. Lepschy, Freiburg 2018.

Wartość muzyki i wartość ciszy

Streszczenie
W czasach Cameraty florenckiej i powstania opery muzyka miała w opinii autora taką
samą wartość jak cisza w dzisiejszych czasach. W spokojniejszym społeczeństwie słu-
chanie muzyki było tak wyjątkowe, jak słuchanie ciszy dzisiaj. Dla wielu ludzi na ca-
łym świecie tamto doświadczenie jest obecnie niemalże niemożliwe. Jak ta wymiana

1 Doctor of Art Studies, Professor, Head of the Department of Interpretation and Analysis of
Music at the Kharkov National University of Arts named after I.P.  Kotlyarevsky (Kharkov,
Ukraine). Comment after the lecture entitled ‘The Value of Music and the Value of Silence’ at
Kharkov National University of Arts, 12th December 2016.
172  Agustín Castilla-Ávila

wartości wpływa dziś na umysły kompozytorów? Autor odwołuje się do tychże warto-
ści w swoich kompozycjach, traktując pauzy jako dźwięki i próbując odpowiedzieć na
pytania konfrontujące głos jako zjawisko fizyczne z głosem wewnętrznym, i w ten spo-
sób stymuluje wyobraźnię odbiorców. W artykule przedstawia i wyjaśnia dwie własne
kompozycje skupiające się na ciszy: suitę graficzną Still-Leben mit Stille [Martwa natura
z ciszą] oraz operę The Rest Is Silence [Reszta jest ciszą]. Still-Leben mit Stille to kon-
templacja skupiająca się na wartości graficznej ciszy w muzyce. Jednocześnie tworzące
ją utwory opowiadają graficzne historie, malując portrety ludzi, którym są poświęcone.
W każdym „portrecie” analizowane są różne pytania, np.: Czy można stworzyć polifonię
w ciszy? Czy potrzebujemy innej terminologii dla dzisiejszych nowych wartości ciszy
w muzyce? Drugie dzieło – opera Reszta jest ciszą – opatrzona jest tytułem zaczerp-
niętym z twórczości Szekspira. Sugeruje on, że pauza to oczywiście cisza. Opera ta jest
bardzo podobna do tych komponowanych przez twórców Cameraty florenckiej (pod
względem motywów mitologicznych, instrumentacji itp.), dostosowana jednak do no-
wych wartości naszego społeczeństwa. Jednocześnie milczenie jest używane jako pro-
test przeciwko szkodom, jakie cywilizacja wyrządza naszej planecie.