1. Introduction
Stillness is distinct from silence in English and German (Stille/Schweigen), whereas in the Romance languages, silentium and its cognates stand for both. Stillness can be an absence of sound and/or of motion, frequently with a pleasant connotation, whereas silence as the absence of speech has tended to attract negative connotations in European culture. “Stillness” dates back to Old English stille, stilnes, “silence…