UC Irvine

Since the twentieth century, silence has become an increasingly significant theme in the performing arts, including music and theater. This dissertation analyzes some of the most prominent approaches to composing with silence and offers new methods for using and creating silence in the context of a theatrical music performance. My methodology for investigating sonic and visual elements that evoke silence is derived from the notion of censorship and surveillance.The first chapter defines silence in music and theater and introduces its varieties, as well as the concepts of censorship and panopticism. In the second chapter, I analyze prior musical and theatrical works that either focus on silence, or have distinct silent moments. This includes pieces by John Cage, Salvatore Sciarrino, Krzysztof Penderecki, and György Ligeti, as well as a politically oriented play by Nassim Soleimanipour that is based on the theme of censorship. In the third chapter, I introduce a palette of silences and evocations of silence, which incorporates both methods employed by other composers and original techniques I have devised. In the last chapter, I detail the creative process of my film, Silent Music, a multidisciplinary project that integrates music, theater, and motion sensor technology. Through that analysis, I explain my methodology for composing a theatrical music piece centered on the notion of silence and censorship.

This dissertation demonstrates the many capabilities of silence and will assist composers, directors, and performers in better understanding the variety of silence and how to use it as the main theme of a creative work.