Function of Rest in the Music of Baroque to Contemporary

Introduction: The rest is the maker of music next to the sound. Music begins and ends with a long rest. In a piece of music, the rest being placed between sounds connected, makes them sound like a phrase. Also, the form of many musical pieces in its entirety is shaped by the role of rest as a separator of parts and sections. Of course, it seems that until the contemporary period, the importance of rest was not much considered by composers. For example, in the contemporary period, many composers specify the rhythm of rest precisely between the movements of their music so that there is no large break between the movements and the musical flow is not delayed. Contemporary composers have composed music based on the expansion of rest and its various combinations along with sound; That is, instead of the rhythm of different sounds being at the heart of the musical movement, it is the rest with its different rhythms that moves the flow of music as a structural element. On the other hand, in many pieces of contemporary music, rest could always lead the listener to the correct understanding of sound events and be like a platform for them to happen, while it also might be a part of a sound event itself.
Research Questions: The diverse function of rest brings to mind an important question about its role from the past to this period: Whether the composers' usage of rest was completely functional like a structural element, or was it of another quality like these examples? Especially, because of the aesthetic process of Western classical music from Baroque to the contemporary period, this question could be considered in a more specific way in these periods, so that we could find out the most important aspects of the function of rest in the music. 
Research Hypothesis: Rest could be like music performance, and there is no difference between being written or not in the notation. Such usage of rest is the result of the performer's action to express the music and could not be a sign of the special attention of the composer to use rest in music. In such cases, which include most of the musical repertoire of the periods under discussion, the composer does not use rest as an imposed element on the musical structure; rather, rest lies in the natural flow of the music. In another type of rest, composers, especially in the contemporary period, use it as a fundamental element to shape the structure of music and consider its role as important in the form of music. An interesting type of rest that is in the absence of music or something that could be referred to as composer's rest has a special place in the investigation of the expanded quality of rest in music. The history of Western classical music shows that the flow of composition has gone from rest to excerpts and later to verbosity, to the extent that in long pieces, the listeners in their minds could feel the need for the composer's rest with its philosophical meaning, and even for moments, by not listening to music, they could create rest for themselves.
Research Literature: Research resources about rest in music are very limited, and there are only a few materials about the topic. For example, Habibdoost considers the concept of the unconscious idea of rest-sound in his book and defines it in connection with one of the important aspects of rhythm in the scale of a piece, i.e., the rhythm of the changes in appearance and absence of ideas. Also, in his book, Ahmadi has some controversial concepts about rest and considers it not to mean the absence of music, but an essential part of every music. In his opinion, rest finds its true importance in John Cage's music, and his piece, 4' 33" is one of the most important pieces about the philosophy of rest. In this context, Sposobin also has material in his book that shows the relationship between the composer's verbosity and rest, with the lengthening of the musical form. In his review, composers, by using mostly the sonata form for movements from the end of the classical period, gradually used the sections of expression, development, and recapitulation of themes, which required a longer time.
Research Method: By examining samples of the music repertoire from the Baroque to the contemporary period, various cases of the function of rest are identified, which include the role of rest in the form of a piece, the phrasing of the music, the dialogue between vocal lines and instruments, the expansion of background to foreground, and reducing or increasing tension.
Research Results: The role of rest in the form of music shows that rest on a large-scale shapes structure in a piece. The lack of it between sound categories or parts of a piece could sometimes lead to the mixing of sound elements and confusion of the musical form. Phrasing shows the clear usage of rest to make musical phrases; so, this is the function of rest, which, like a pause in a spoken word, by being placed correctly between the sounds, could make the music articulation. Placing rest between two or more vocal lines or instruments could show the expressive quality of music in the form of a dialogue between them so that the one-way flow of music from one vocal line or only one instrument in some cases could create fatigue for the listener, which is balanced by this function of rest. The expansion of music using rest is a usage that is more concerning the works of contemporary composers, and it gains meaning by bringing rest into the context of sound. Expanded rest is the exact listening of it in search of sound, which is something that has very little history in the music of previous periods. The reduction and increase of tension points to the narrative and metatextual usage of rest in music. This function creates a dramatic quality in the music and brings a sense of anticipation for the continuation of the sound flow to express the musical narrative.