The result is chilling at times, with Arborea using the empty spaces and silence as much as notes to create a remote and eerie world.

NPR: Arborea: 'Black Mountain Road'

Whatever transpired, between Oct. 1 and Oct. 4 last year, shares in the company slumped 17% on four times their normal volume (see Schering-Plough's Scary Silence).

FORBES: Magazine Article

Silence can be viewed as hostility, and being a serious at all times can make you seem hard to relate to.

FORBES: Rookie Mistakes: 5 Extremes to Avoid at Work

His last chapter, describing how a subway busker reduces a crowd of scurrying New Yorkers to rapt silence with a Bach violin sonata, is an appropriate image for our times, a sign that classical music does indeed still matter.

ECONOMIST: Classical music