brettworks

Consider the unfilled spaces of musical practice, its lacunae. Like the speech balloon emoji, which symbolizes someone speaking, music’s lacunae evoke the not-yet-said, its three dots proxies for in-progress, anticipation and mystery, and the spaces in which the musician/composer/producer

works something out through sound,
represents the ineffable,
make sense out of style and style out of sense,
builds structures,
resonates with a moment, a scene, a season,
discovers new instrumental sonics and techniques.

In sum, lacunae in musical practice are what Debussy (and Mozart and Miles) called the space between the notes. Notice the gaps and the unplayed, parts implied not sounded, the inherent rhythms, ghost notes, and non-cadences, the unsung hinting at what could have been, the negative spaces that give music’s sounds room to convey feeling.