100 Tacets by Tonnetz

100 Tacets is a solution to a problem. We are bombarded by music almost constantly just living our daily lives. Music is played in many public spaces, usually in the form of recordings. It is used in nearly all audio/video media, including news reports and advertisements. Many popular songs are now heard more often as accompaniment to commercials rather than on their own. But many of us also listen to music voluntarily on a nearly constant basis with our ever present mobile phones and computers. It's nice to stop the music occasionally, if only for a short time, but it takes a conscious effort to do so. 100 Tacets can do it for you.

By mixing in several tracks from 100 Tacets in a playlist intended to be listened to randomly, the listener encounters occasional periods of silence. The music player plays on but since the track is absolutely silent the only sounds heard by the listener (besides the inherent noise of the player) are those in her environment, whether that place is an office, a park, an automobile, at home or anywhere else. In music, "tacet" is a musical direction to be silent.

100 Tacets is of course inspired by John Cage's famous "silent" work 4'33" and is dedicated to his memory on this day, September 5, 2012, the 100th anniversary of his birth. The main difference is that 4'33" is actually performed by musicians, who simply refrain from playing, while 100 Tacets consists of periods of silence; these are not recorded "Cagean" silences but stretches of absolute silence. Since the silence is encountered rather than performed as in 4'33", 100 Tacets is actually much more like Cage's Silent Prayer, his proposed but unrealized musical idea from 1947 that evolved into 4'33" in 1952. Silent Prayer was to be a single recording of silence or near-silence for Muzak to play occasionally with their usual music.

The large number of tacets has a purpose: many listeners have very large digital collections of music. Collections with more than 10,000 individual tracks are not uncommon. Additionally, many listeners set automatic playlist criteria that include how recently particular tracks were played, e.g. a playlist that excludes tracks played within the past three months. A large number of tacets increases the chance that one or more will play (so to speak) at some point. As some are played and taken out of the current playlist, others reappear because their last played date meets the playlist requirements.

100 Tacets is free or you may pay whatever you think it is worth.

Email: tonnetz.sound@gmail.com
Twitter: @TonnetzSound