First post!

I decided I would make a blog way back in July... anyway, life got in the way slightly, and my inability to decide on titles made the process take this long.

Lots has changed since July though... then, I was mostly a mathematician. Now, I'm spending the majority of my time on music stuff. They will mix next year when I start my new Open University courses, but until then, music is the focus.

Just under 2 weeks ago, I started a new job. I now have a contract, and a salary, with agreed rates for other stuff too (I've got quite a lot of music income in the next few weeks, with arranged services, funerals etc.). Still getting used to it, I'm not a fan of playing carols without a choir, and I've done that a few times now. I went for the "play loudly and triumphantly" thing this afternoon, as I was told I was too quite at a similar event last week. Anyway, how loudly I play isn't really an insurmountable issue, as I just pull out/push in stops! Organs have their advantages, as it doesn't matter how hard you push the note, the same level of noise comes out of the pipes!


The title "Music is silent" came to me whilst I was brushing my teeth one day this week (I get most of my phrases/titles whilst brushing my teeth in the early hours of the morning).
For me, my life *always* has music in it. It ends up being meaningless at times. When my head is noisy, music is utterly pointless, my ears seem to not be able to take in any sounds, as the internal voices are just too noisy.
But slowly, music brings me back to life. Sounds clichéd, but it is.

It works the other way around too - silent is music. Silence is music to me. Silence is an unknown concept to me, I have near-constant external noises - maybe people talking, or singing, or playing music, and constant internal noises - voices, really loud persistent thoughts, noises. Silence is something I think I would like to experience, just to discredit it and say it was far too boring for me. But music minus the rest of life would be good.


Mozart said "Silence is very important. The silence between the notes are as important as the notes themselves." I first came across this quote in the front of a music book dating from the1920's I have in my collection about 4 years ago. I still remember it now, silence made sense.
I sang Handel's Messiah in the Royal Albert Hall 4 weeks ago. The best silence I have ever experienced was during the Hallelujah chorus, when before the last phrase, *everybody* (so over 3,900 of us) observed the two crotchets rest, and looked at Sir David Willcocks to be directed to breathe before singing that last "Hallelujah" - that was amazing! I played for some excerpts from that piece last night, and the silence just wasn't the same. Anyway, I digress!

Hopefully, I'll remember to write posts on here. Life does get busy, and I get stressed and tired, but I think of things often that I want to write about, so here will be the place.

My reminder in my mobile telephone about writing this blog said "Silence makes music and music makes silence. Listen carefully enough and you can hear the silent music. Listen carefully enough and you can hear the music of silence"