The Sound of Silence Discussion Essays

Dystopian works force us to look at social problems because they exaggerate issues to get the viewer’s attention. By seeing where social problems can or will lead to in the future, people pay more attention to what is going on and they feel the need to do something about it. The song, “The Sound of Silence,” by Paul Simon is about being revealed to the light. Seeing what one was never realized before. It relates well to the allegory of the cave by Plato and the book Fahrenheit 451, it was actually written as a response to this book by Ray Bradbury. This song really shows how people in society do not think, they go along with what is going on and do not question, they do not act upon what is wrong.

I sat down with Tanner VanderKrabben in his dorm on October 8, 2016, to interview him about how music has shaped his life. Tanner has been involved in music since elementary school, and his passion for music has only grown since then. Throughout his life, he has found music to be a powerful tool to express himself. This fall, Tanner began working towards a degree in music education at the University of Minnesota so that he could one day share this tool with his future students.

I thought that Silent Ears, Silent Heart was an excellent book. It really gave you a full prospective of what a family and a person has to go through living a life without being able to hear sound it also helps you realize what someone has to go through that can’t hear what is going on around them. The book starts off with a couple named the Clines there’s Mr. Cline who is Jack who runs his own multimillion dollar business in a glass production. His dream is to have his son at his side and follow in his footsteps and run the family business someday. Then there’s Mrs. Cline who is Margret who is a stay at home wife that is waiting the arrival of their child.

Milton Babbitt and John Cage were both composers who played pivotal roles in the post-World War II Avant Garde music scene and in the pioneering of electronic music. Both composers found their roots and were greatly influenced by German-Jewish composer Arnold Schoenberg, however they both adopted different viewpoints on the relationship between a composer and their audience . Babbitt believed that a composer or creator did not have an obligation to please his or her audience, and that his pieces were intended mostly for professionals capable of understanding the context and intention of his music. Cage on the other hand granted his audience more power and influence, believing that music was a platform on which audiences could utilize their creativity to adopt new ways of perceiving and being aware of the world around them. These stances, as well as the different techniques and methodologies of the composers pitted them on somewhat of a spectrum, with Babbitt and his systematic, modernist ideas that were largely based in the music schools of academic institutions on one side and Cage, with his uncontrollable, radical combinations of Avant Garde sounds on the other side. These ideas on audience construction and relations were also visible in rock music of the 1960’s, particularly in compositions of artists such as Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan.

Silence by Endo Shusaku is portrayed from a cultural and religious suffering during the 1600s in Japan. The whole trip is carried out with a missionary enthusiasm for the hidden Christians of Japan but also for a personal curiosity to confirm if the stories of Priest Ferreira's apostasy was real.

I would like to give you some insight as to the daily operation of a major Emergency Department in this city. Not unlike many other “ER’s” the nursing staff is tasked with the triage or assessment of patients in order to sort by priority. The nurse is then tasked with maintaining flow of the department and ensuring the timely care and physician evaluation of patients. This requires clinical nursing judgement and expertise which is tested constantly. To explain this plainly, nurses are faced with a meat grinder which cannot stop. There may be twenty patients in the lobby with ambulances lining up. The room nurses are trying to

As Alex Ross describes, “Cage love[s] noise” (366). This should be why he decided to alter his piano in a “conceptually violent” and unusual way for Sonatas and Interludes. Though, Cage’s aim was not pure violence, as we are pleased by the “soft sounds” instead of being “battered by some unholy racket” (Ross, 366). I

Rather than a musical composition or visual installation, the work 4’33’’ is a concept in art history. Therefore, I think there is no need to separate music and visual art. To be honest, 4’33’’ is the silence within 4’33’’ that presents ideas to the audience. Cage

Cage did his very best work by combining as many sounds as he could get and ended up sacrificing the music result to the dislike of many people.

His philosophy of music does apply to modern music today. For instance if you listen to the instrumental of any song today from any genre (rap, pop, r&b...etc.), artists get a feel from the music before they compose their lyrics. If you were to extract the lyrics from a song you would dismiss the meaning of that song and actually picture what you think that music actually means. Any song is considered music with or without lyrics your personal portrayal of what it means or what it feels is what makes

John Milton Cage Jr. is easily one of the most influential American composers of our time. John Cage spent his early life in Los Angeles, California after being born to Lucretia Harvey and John Milton Cage Sr. on September 5, 1912. Cage’s embarked on the first steps to his music career when he began taking private piano lessons when he was just a kid. As the years went by it seemed as if Cage became more interested in literature and writing than music composition. Cage graduated from Los Angeles High School as valedictorian and went on to give a rather enticing speech that gained recognition at the Hollywood Bowl. Cage’s speech seemed to have foreshadowed his most popular piece entitled “4’33”, one of which I consider to be one of the most

4’33”, also known as “four minutes thirty-three seconds of silence”, is the most famous and most controversial musical creation of the American experimental composer John Cage (1921 – 1992). Known best for his unusual or different kinds of compositions, Cage composed this piece in 1952 for any instrument or group of instruments and divided it into 3 movements, throughout which the performer is instructed not to play the instrument during the entire 4 minutes and thirty-three seconds. And despite the fact that it is commonly known as “the silent piece”, it aims to manifest or stress the sounds of the environment heard while it is performed, the

John Cage (1912-1992) was an American composer whose most famous work is actually not music at all. The piece is called, 4’33”, otherwise known as “The Silent Piece”, is just that, four minutes and 33 seconds of silence. Since I didn’t know what to expect, I thought the sound on my computer was broken!!! I waited and waited for him to begin, then, just like that, it was over. The significance of the piece is its simplicity. It is meant to teach us that there is no such thing as “true silence” (NPR). No matter how quiet you think it is, there is always a sound if you are still and listen carefully to what is actually going on around you. The piece was fist played in August 1952 in a tiny auditorium called Maverick Concert Hall in Hurley, New York and the musicians sat on stage for four minutes and 33 seconds.

Some argue that corrupt police officers are simply the product of a corrupt culture of the agency they work for. These officers are socially introduced to a number of informal rules when they begin employment. This process and these rules serve two main purposes. First, this process is designed to minimize the chances of external or internal controls being mobilized to address the behaviors and, secondly, to keep corrupt activities at a level that is acceptable and likely undetectable. The rule most often referred to in this connection, is the “Code of Silence.” Officers are socialized into not cooperating with investigations regarding fellow officers. Whether or not the officer participates in corrupt activities for financial gain, an officer’s adherence to the “Code of Silence” places them squarely amongst the corrupt of the profession (Price, 1972).

Public communication is very important when in a discussion with coworkers and such. The one weakness that some people run into is silence. The spiral of silence theory by Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann explains why certain people fall under the pressure and seclude to silence. Silence may not always be a bad thing, but according to a study by Lucy J. MacGregor, the fact is that silence during a speech or conversation is absolutely bad. With this, silence while talking to a large group negatively affects the listeners in a way in which some words in the speech will not be remembered. The point is that silence tends to destroy people’s speeches. Words are forgotten in the speech; Loss of the attention by the listeners happens and the