SILENCE IS INDISPENSABLE
Silence is indispensable. Missing silence is as destructive as forced silence - a phenomenon we may feel when staying at a cemetery. Silence is used to get new energy. We need it for better concentration, for meditation, for even only to think about something. In order to create something new and leave the old behind. In a way silence is the center of the end and the beginning, like the night. But in fact: where do we have silence? Our ears are always opened in contrast to other senses like mouth and eyes. We never have absolute silence. Absolute silence would mean there is no movement at all - life in general would break down. An attempt to define, to really understand silence, would cause a dilemma, because being would then be separated from consciousness. Novalis said, "we do not possess things we are talking about". But on the other hand, not possessing something could be expressed by silence (not by words and sounds), if our consciousness is active and we think about something missing.
[In: Silences. (Ver-)Schweigen. (1990)]

SILENCE IS OF DIALECTIC CHARACTER
Silence is of dialectic character, because it simultaneously combines either/or, being and non-being, emotion and realization, hope or hopelessness, destruction, emptiness, and decay. 
[In: Silences. (Ver-)Schweigen. (1990)]

SILENCE/CONSERVING SILENCE - BEING SILENT/HOLDING SOMETHING SILENT
Decent citizens stay silent in the night (valves are carefully installed). Decent citizens pay attention to silence during daytime. It has to be quiet: the most important condition for law and order...That is the reason why we do not speak too much and why people are forced to keep things to themselves. And in cases, where it is not possible to be silent, there people "talk": where they play the hypocrite, where they lie, cover up, twist, or pervert. But where "talking in order to keep things secret" is useless, there are concrete actions, (governmental) violence (supported by fascist henchmen), limitations, persecutions, condemnations; there are acts of torture, wars or counterrevolutions ... for discriminated, censured, tabooed people. Being removed from society means that man has to be silent and this oppression from the outside causes inner despair, lack of self-confidence or even suicidal tendencies. For persecuted, imprisoned, tortured people ... governmental terror can not only mean to be locked into silence but also to be silenced to death. An inner attitude of people in all circumstances of life is linked with an extreme disciplining from the outside. "Everlasting occupation" is strategy: Avoiding silence is used to dull our senses. That is the strategy once analyzed by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels: a system of alienation, separation leading to isolation. Or, in Marx's words: to Entfremdung (estrangement). Obviously in this system, silence - as a place of contemplation - is suspect - similar to the night. (Exceptions are tolerated when they stay with conformity.) In this way, silence is really dangerous, as it implies the power of analysis, or even a tendency to ask relevant questions, that could attack fundamental (conservative) views. Silence could contain revolutionary aspects, could be used as a first step to rebel against the circumstances of life. Maintenance of silence for years can be cruel but it is limited. History contains a lot of examples; an extreme is the shrinking of 1000 years to only 12 in fascist times. Paul Celan (1920-1970) created the expression "erschwiegenes Wort" in his poem Argumentum e silentio. 
[In: Silences. (Ver-)Schweigen. (1990)]

LEARNING TO HEAR SILENCE
The desolate situation becomes evident, if composers establish silence to create an atmosphere that supports fantasy or thinking emotion. But because silence is a state strongly contradicted to the system of permanent acoustic occupation, it causes - if not provocation - confusion. Ears, even the head, begin to burn because the individual is left alone and is forced to cope with its own personality; speechlessness and the absence of sound become perceptible - things that have been missed. Well, it is quite subjective, but on the other hand, this phenomena is caused by a society that is characterized by a lack of openness, non-prejudice, tolerance in respect to new phenomena or other thinking people. That's a state that hurts. In order to change or to influence this situation somebody is required, who is quite rational, clearly analyzing but sensitive as well. For example, Kassandra as described by Christa Wolf, "I learned by watching ways of being silent." If this way of learning could spread, then hearing, as well as thinking, could develop in a way, so that ears only get a "burning" by being permanently occupied. Ears are victims to acoustical gossip or of old romantic emotions and attitudes. If we altered these circumstances we would have reached a lot.
[In: "Man schindet die Ohren sich blutig an Noten!" (1991)]