Corona: that’s the italian word for indicating a pause above all the notes in a score. According to Johann Gottfried Walther in his »Musikalisches Lexikon« 1732. This is 1732 and Europe is full of the plague and smallpox. Not to mention cholera, measles, venereal diseases, typhoid. Stops you in your tracks. Not as radical as the ensemble Cage Against the machine, though, which tried to get John Cage’s timeless 4’33” chosen as Number 1 in the British Top 40 ( and got stuck at a very respectable number 25) In this newsletter we focus on the silence in Bach and Schumann. Sem de Jongh breaks the silence, not to mention Nancy Storace and Louis Armstrong. Once again there is The Hague Music coming through in waves and an Ox standing on the Roof. Who said anything about silence?
