“Blues Sax,” watercolor, 14″x11″. This painting is for sale. Prints also available. Contact me below for details.

Whether it is true or not I can’t say, but I’m told someone asked Mozart once what his favorite part of music was.

“The rests,” he replied.

While his answer may seem flip, I believe he was deadly serious. Imagine music with no spaces between the notes. It wouldn’t be music at all, would it? Just a noisy cacophany.

Beethoven was also clearly aware of the power of the rest to amplify and strengthen his musical message.  The first minute of his Great Fugue is a masterful example. (Is it just my imagination, or can you hear in the silence the seed of all great music?):
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6s0Mp7LFI-k]

So often we try to pack so much in that our lives become a jarring jumble, like music minus the rests. It’s good to remember that everything won’t come crashing to a halt just because we paused to breathe.

In fact, allowing ourselves time to rest often has quite the opposite effect!