Silence is inevitable. It's something we can't escape in our everyday lives, and it's something we can't escape in music as well. After listening to music by Morton Feldman, I realized that silence is a big but less unexplored part of music. This made me want to study how silence can be used in music.   

The purpose of this essay is to investigate the roles silence can have in music, systemize different functions silence can have, improvise and compose music that in some way illuminates silence.   

My research has led me to identify and categorize seven distinct functions of silence in music. This systematic approach has empowered me to compose and utilize silence in a structured manner. The culmination of this method was the creation of six unique compositions, which were then rehearsed and performed in a concert by a band comprising of me on Piano, Maja Svanteson on Voice, Hannes Arason on Trumpet, and Fredrik Ljungkvist on Saxophone and Clarinet.  

Using one or two functions when composing and thereby being able to study the chosen function isolated has made me see how multifaceted silence is. The silence is and should be seen as nuanced in the same way as a sound or tone. Our band noticed a tendency to play softly during our initial rehearsals and felt a general unease when confronted with silence. This hesitancy not only restrained our music but also our potential for growth. However, as we overcame these habits, our use of silence became more varied, enriching our music and making it more intriguing.