A couple of years ago we spent Easter near Frankfurt am Mein. On Holy Saturday we took a walk through “Bankfurt”, as this metropolis is sometimes called. Holy Sunday is one big commercial crescendo here. The local cathedral, the coronation site of German kings and emperors, was practically deserted. Instead of that, when walking main streets we had to struggle through dense crowds of people who rushed to do their shopping. Now and then the human stream was stopped by buskers, each of different nationality, each performing a repertoire that had nothing to do with the Easter aura.

Cool, but… somewhat barbarian. It was like a carnival in Rio, combined with frenzied shopping. This quasi-Easter rave had one cause: commerce. The only modern multi-cultural religion.

When one is silent

Have you noticed how embarrassing even a moment of seriousness, concentration and silence seems to be when saying goodbye to someone who has died with a “minute’s silence”? Surely everyone was able to observe it. Standing still without a word, without fidgeting, without occupying your hands and without staring at the screen of your cell phone turns out to be a huge effort. You don’t know what to do with your hands (looking at fingernails is not very absorbing), where to direct your gaze (after all, it’s not appropriate to stare at others), how to stand (a certain solution is to shift your body weight from the right leg to the left and back). Everyone suddenly gets a scratchy throat (not from emotion at all), requiring coughing and grunting.

Yes – a minute of silence seems to last much longer than the clock indicates and is by no means silence.

The phonic richness of the alleged silence was used by John Cage in his famous piece 4’33” (4 minutes 33 seconds). This three-movement composition can be performed on any instrument(s) by a soloist or orchestra, as it consists only of rests. There is no sound during the entire duration of the “music”. This “serious joke” by Cage premiered – hard to believe – 71 years ago!

This is how silence officially invaded the world of music. In fact, it was in the temples of Polyhymnia that it was always possible to find it – full of tension before the concert, before the musicians got to work and after it, if the piece captured the listeners and still resonated in their memory. However, Cage’s greatest merit was proving that our earthly, human silence is full of sounds. And that the authors of these uncoordinated “concerts” are us and our surroundings.

Marina Abramović, a famous artist of Serbian origin, reinterpreted the idea of an American avant-garde musician in her own way. In 2010, she presented the performance “Artist is Present” at New York’s MoMA. Viewers had the opportunity to interact with her directly, at a close distance across the table, eye to eye. The time was not limited, but any distracting gestures or sounds – strictly forbidden!

Not everyone who wanted to “have the honor” of participating in the action was able to withstand the pressure. Some ran away quickly, others seemed to be deeply moved by something/someone. She, Marina, was able to remain silent and still, except for one case when her ex-partner Ulay sat vis a vis…

And when Abramović ran workshops that were extremely difficult to get into, her first condition was to throw away one’s cell phone and learn how to concentrate. Like in a monastery – but under the auspices of great, fashionable art.

Do you know who easily adapted to the rigors of Abramović’s “monastery”? Lady Gaga was the best.

Because when one is silent, silent, silent/ then the ravenous appetite for poetry grows, which perhaps lies dormant in us – wrote (and sang) Jonasz Kofta, whose 35th death anniversary is coming soon, on April 28.

Not only his “Song about silence” dealt with a state in which we are rarely allowed to find ourselves. Simon & Garfunkel’s “Sound of Silence” should be considered the most famous tribute to the sound void (?) – (my favorite covers are the Disturbed and Pentatonix versions).

As probably everyone knows – this song is about the inability of people to communicate in the emotional dimension. Let me remind you that “The sound of silence” sounded for the first time in 1964, when interpersonal communication at a distance was made possible by the landline phone.

Who remembers this epochal invention of Bell? And what did this wonder look like? In our apartment, there was a black, bakelite one in the big hall, between the door to grandma’s room and the bathroom. It served all residents, so “hanging on a cable” was forbidden. The limited time of use meant that conversations had to be controlled – self-controlled, without eavesdropping. I was suffering from agony when some sweetheart called. Tenderness had to be translated into a date in real life. And then – silence together, because body language expressed more.

Sonic drug

Now about the reverse of silence. About the cacophony. We live in it every day, we townspeople. We are surrounded by a constant roar emitted by all mechanisms, from vehicles to devices that facilitate home and garden work. (Horror – neighbors mowing grass early on the weekend or doing farm repairs).

We also add music, listened to individually or in groups. Finally, our own voices come in, closer and closer to shouting – you have to raise your voice to be heard in this din.

Children were used to be reprimanded for talking too loudly – now they have to scream to get someone’s attention.

No wonder: the street noise alone is about 65 to 100 decibels. At home, the TV or radio is constantly playing, but that’s not all. Many of us apply an additional dose of noise individually, in headphones – which is often over 110 dB. A party at a disco or a rock concert – it’s a hit of sounds that often exceeds the endurance of the human ear.

All audiologists, i.e. specialists in hearing disorders, trumpet (nomen omen) about the fact that it threatens us with sudden or gradual deafness. Worse, it’s not just this sense that is affected. Our whole being, subjected to long-term overstimulation, begins to experience various ailments: hypertension, susceptibility to a heart attack, difficulty falling asleep, distraction – these are just some of the negative effects of frequent exposure to loud sounds.

I remember the years when the rapidly modernized media editorial offices liquidated closed rooms for journalists, replacing them with open spaces. After a couple of hours of work, I left much more tired than before, with worse results.

Today we no longer notice it, we do not think about the cause of frustration. We take the din as a matter of course. Worse – when nothing plays, does not pound, does not rattle, does not growl – fear, fear, ye gods! End of the world or what? We are used to living in noise and do not notice the negative sides of phonic aggression. On the contrary, we see silence less and less as psychological comfort, as a balm for the mind. More and more often it is perceived as ... oppressive!

During holiday trips to the open air, to the sea or other places, some people, instead of “communicating” with nature, with its diverse and rich sound, put on headphones. They separate themselves from nature with music. It’s even worse, when these unwanted sounds are offered to unintentional listeners.

Why are modern people, especially younger generations, afraid of silence? Firstly, the excess of sensory stimuli is addictive, similarly to stimulants. The state of arousal can be pleasant, the adrenaline rushing to the head allows you to soar to the heights of mobility and creativity, but after such an effort you should let your body rest.

Secondly, there’s a lot going on in silence on a nuanced level, and that forces you to pay attention – while the noise creeps in at all pores. If you doubt, watch the scene from Marek Piwowski’s “Rejs” (“The Cruise”), when engineer Mamoń plays the “boredom” of Polish films in such a fascinating and comical way that the alleged “nothing-ever-happens” becomes its own contradiction. Maybe it takes the talent of Zdzisław Maklakiewicz (or other outstanding actors) to rediscover the value of silence?

Or maybe… try to remain silent, be in silence, listen to yourself? For the sake of experiment. Because “between silence and silence, things sway”, as Grzegorz Turnau sang. I recommend it as a pre-Easter training.

– Monika Małkowska
– Translated by Dominik Szczęsny-Kostanecki

TVP WEEKLY. Editorial team and jornalists