Loneliness in Sound

As a result of knowing the back story behind the painting and having looked at what life was like at the time the painting was created, I decided to focus more on silence in sound and loneliness.

Edward Hopper said himself that the painting was subconsciously representing the loneliness of the city, and I think that is especially the case at that time in America's history. So, I took a listen to John Cage's 4'33" as I knew that it was an orchestrated piece consisting only of silence. I understand that he was attempting to get the audience to listen to their surroundings, and make them aware of the sounds around them. Silence in this way shows to be very effective.

In film also, silence is very effective. Most recently 'Gravity' uses the art of silence to replicate the lack of sound heard in space, only using sounds for dialogue, and when a character comes into contact with an object. Here is an article talking more about it:

https://suite101.com/a/john-cage-433-theories-of-sound-and-silence-a69123

For my piece I want to try and replicate the feeling that Edward Hopper was trying to create when he painted 'Nighthawks' and that is a lonely place. To do this, I want to try and think of a character to carry the piece and write out a descriptive piece of what they see, and what's around them to try and make out what kind of sounds are around them. My aim is to try and create an image of a place in the mind of the audience, but also to try and create a feeling around that place of loneliness, but not complete silence.