Pop music’s problem with silence

I couldn't disagree more with your opinion about Bach. He does a) use pauses very sophisticated for example in pretty much every recitativo of the Matthäuspassion. Another very good examples for complete silence: "Es ist nun nichts" in "Jesu meine Freude" or, even more pronounced: Actus Tragicus BWV 106 before the Alt/Bass – Aria ("In deine Hände") there is a general break in all voices over a whole measure with fermata over each break. With a pedant (in a positive sense) like bach this is no coincidence. If you abstract your idea of silence a little further: All the very special arias with bassetto-bc (for example: "Aus Liebe will mein Heiland sterben" – this does have a lot of real silence btw.) can be seen as a special form of silence. Bach is just way too sophisticated to be compared "to modern pop-music" (your comparison). He's just not a composer of showmanship through obvious effects.

Debussy worked with silence in piano in many ways like in Little Shepherd he brings the small 2page piece to seem like a little chronological excerpt of in the life of the shepherd, the pause markings making it seem like four sections of his day or week. Or the rest before the last chord in Prelude suite bergamasque , the silence seems more like a rush towards that final climactic chord ( if the pianist plays the piece well). Or like in Hommage a Rameau in measure 30 , he plays with a quarter rest between reconvening with the same low G note (he modulates though ) as if you are listening to a radio broadcast but came back after a commercial on the same note.
At least those are my thoughts. He was genius. So many other things he did with silence and other things. But his music moves the soul.

Fascinating

Interestingly, I feel like a lot of chopped and screwed remixes are trying to bring a similar sense of silence to that in a lot of the religious music you mentioned

I have a rock song that includes two quarter beat rests where the whole band is silent. Trying to get a drummer to not play that beat is always a struggle.

Oooh so that's why they paused in plainchant, interesting. Also hahaha I was waiting for Cage – interesting what people define as music. Ooh and I have just been looking into Takemitsu so Im very curious to dig into it more – an overall very interesting video thank you!!! 🙂

I love the silence at the end of a piece played in concert. I heard the organist Naji Hakim play at St Giles' in Edinburgh: someone started clapping while the last chord was still resonating. I was so upset – the building was still singing! One of my favourite uses of silence in choral rep is Purcell's use of rests in 'Thou Knowest Lord' from the Funeral Music. Silent footfalls in a funeral procession …

EDM is a genre that is actually starting to play with silence quite well

I'm an Ecstatic Dance DJ (we dance without alcohol or drugs, shoes, or chit chat), and i love including at least one moment silence in the middle of a 2-hour dance journey. Then at the end, I usually fade out into silence and try to keep it for as long as possible, sometimes up to 5 minutes.

I love the tension in the silence before the guitar solo in Good Times Bad Times of Led Zeppelin. https://youtu.be/lsZG7n7ries?t=84

is that a tabla in the top left?

What’s the name of the story Takemitsu Piece?