Listen to the Silence
If you can, please listen
to Cem Adrian singing our famous folk song "Uzun İnce Bir Yol" on his
first album. If you've listened to it before, listen to it again. But
this time, don't listen to the singer. Don't listen to his unique voice,
or to the accompanying instruments (one of which is the piano, played by
Fazıl Say).
This time, listen to the everything in the recording except the song.
But be careful, because you'll hear nothing, and you'll probably think
that it doesn't mean anything. And thinking this way would mean that
you're missing my point.
In order to realize what that this silence means, you must first take
note of the applause at the end of the song. The recording was made in
the center hall of the FEASS Building. It was noontime. Most people did
not have classes, but (as you know) hardly any of them had very much
time for lunch: they either had to go and find somewhere to eat very
quickly beforehand, or had to skip lunch altogether. Despite this fact,
the area set up for Fazıl Say and his student Cem Adrian to perform in
was surrounded by hundreds of students. Plus, the stairs facing the area
and all three balconies from which people could see the performance were
full of Bilkenters. There was no empty place left anywhere near the
hall.
This audience had every right to leave, to talk to each other or even
shout across the hall. It's their school building; it's their free time.
And the price of admission was not a consideration, because it was free.
So, there was no reason to stay, except for the beauty of the
performance. But the students neither left the building nor made any
noise. The only sound was the music being performed by Adrian and Say.
Hence, such a silence tells us a lot: a lot about Bilkent students, and
a lot about how a really good performance can captivate an audience
without any commands or orders. I can easily say that such a silence
answers a lot of questions about what kind of a place Bilkent is.
Thinking it over again and again, this has made me prouder of our school
than anything else I've seen. So, please listen to this recording, but
this time try not to listen to the music itself, because the background
silence tells us as much as the song does.
İsmail O. Postalcıoğlu (POLS/II)
orhan@ug.bcc.bilkent.edu.tr
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