In music, a lacuna is an intentional, extended passage in a

musical work Musical composition can refer to an original piece or work of music, either vocal or instrumental, the structure of a musical piece or to the process of creating or writing a new piece of music. People who create new compositions are called c ...

during which no notes are played. A lacuna acts as "negative music" to induce a state of serenity (or tension) in the listener through its contrast to "normal" music consisting of sounded notes. Though no notes are sounded during a lacuna, it is a purposeful musical passage used for a specific effect in the context of the overall work. Lacunae may be of any duration, as indicated by the

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

. Contrast this to a musical rest, which is of much shorter duration and a normal part of musical performance that serves to create rhythm and movement between notes. In general, rests do not call attention to themselves in the perception of the listener, whereas lacunae actively force the listener to experience silence as part of the overall performance. In

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...

John Cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading fi ...

's famous piece '' 4'33"'' consists of three long silences, and may be considered a piece made entirely of lacunae. Alternative, indie band The Choir incorporated a lacuna in their song "Circle Slide" of the celebrated, eponymous album, as a guitar and sax fade to absolute silence on the record, a feat that drummer

Steve Hindalong Steve Hindalong (born November 29, 1959) is an American drummer, percussionist, songwriter and producer best known for his work with the alternative rock band the Choir. Since 2006, Hindalong has also been an official member of the alternative ...

described as tricky to pull off in a pre-digital environment. In popular music,

hidden track In the field of recorded music, a hidden track (sometimes called a ghost track, secret track or unlisted track) is a song or a piece of audio that has been placed on a CD, audio cassette, LP record, or other recorded medium, in such a way as t ...

s are often preceded by a lacuna.

Radiohead Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Greenwood (bass) ...

's "Motion Picture Soundtrack", the last track on the album '' Kid A'' has an extended period of silence (the silence is nearly two minutes long) to augment the theme of the album,Pitchfork Review
Retrieved on February 21, 2011 but is not precursor to a hidden track. Similarly,

Boards of Canada Boards of Canada are a Scottish electronic music duo consisting of brothers Michael Sandison and Marcus Eoin, formed initially as a group in 1986 before becoming a duo in the 1990s.Hoffmann, Heiko.Pitchfork: Interviews: Boards of Canada (Septemb ...

's ''

Geogaddi ''Geogaddi'' is the second studio album by Scottish electronic music duo Boards of Canada. It was released on 13 February 2002 in Japan, then five days later in Europe, by Warp. The album is aesthetically and stylistically darker than the approa ...

'' features a lacuna in its closing track, "Magic Window." It features almost two minutes of pure silence. Some traditional Japanese music incorporates lacunae, the auditory equivalent of negative space, a

visual aesthetic The visual system comprises the sensory organ (the eye) and parts of the central nervous system (the retina containing photoreceptor cells, the optic nerve, the optic tract and the visual cortex) which gives organisms the sense of sigh ...

element particularly appreciated in Japanese culture.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lacuna (Music) Italian words and phrases Formal sections in music analysis