The Sound of Silence

This is an English translation of my bi-weekly column “The Way of the Piano” for Nikkan Sun.

The Sound of Silence is a famous song, but have you ever thought about the paradox of that title? Sound that is more silent than the lack of sound. But there are such sounds. And I can create that sound world.

Let me start with a recollection of the five minutes I spent a few years ago in a room designed to eliminate all possible sounds and their vibrations.

It was at a piano factory’s Research and Development Department. The door to the room was thicker than my body and quite heavy. The walls inside were covered with materials that absorb sounds. The ceiling was so high I could not see. There was no floor but several beams for people to walk on, underneath which was massive space I could not see the end of. They got rid of everything that could possibly transmit any sound vibrations.

“May I sit in this room by myself for a few minutes?”

I did my best to listen to the silence, but my ears rang and I heard my body making all sorts of sounds inside. I could not attend the state I was hoping for, of peace and transcendence.

Hearing is the sense that is most likely to detect any threat to our lives. Compare hearing to vision. We can only see things in front of us, and that is if it is not blocked by something. We close our eyes to blink and to sleep. On the other hand, we can hear any sound coming from all around us. Sounds penetrate most objects that can be in the way. And we hear even when we are asleep. In our brain, visual information goes through our prefrontal cortex, taking time to consider what it is. But aural information goes directly to our amygdala, to our survival instincts and emotions. That is why our bodies react faster than our minds sometimes to sounds that surprises us.

Alarms. Screams. Thunders… These are the sounds that alerts us. But there are sounds that lets us know that all is quiet, well, as they should be. Bird calls. People in distance. The familiar sounds of our daily lives. Lullabies. The lack of all these sounds is not very comforting.

Perhaps the sounds that give us the most satisfying sense of peace is the sounds of music, I’ve come to think these days. No matter what is going on in the outside world, in the time and space we cherish music together, we belong, at peace. I want to be a musician that can deliver that sense of security.