Melanie Diehl
(6887890)
Prof. Dr. Bernd
Herzogenrath
Winter
Semester 2022/2023
The Future
of American Music
Independent
Study – 21.02.23
Alvin
Lucier: Nothing is Real
It took me a few replays and a few other
covers of understanding how Lucier’s amplified tea pot theory works. I was
baffled that a teapot could even do that. I thought it was converting the same
sounds played on the piano then transported into the teapot? What? How? I know
we are not supposed to ask questions in an essay, but I did not understand it.
So, it took me a few replays.
I went on to
search for any covers of Lucier, and there were a ton, some even explained it.
Then I got it. Should have come to class that day, I guess. I started to
research on Lucier and I t did not take me long to realise that he was inspired
by John Cage and Pierre Schaeffer. During my time in the seminar, I studied
that all the composers we have discussed are linked, intertwined, and inspired from
each other’s. Since Cage, there have been a vast majority of composers who
continue to break the boundaries of music.
I have never
thought of using a teapot for musical purposes because, our generation has more
of less grown up with electro music. The use of electronical instruments to
amplify music or the use of pc software for music, that help us tune in music
or turn people who can’t sing into singers, is essentially nothing new to us.
However, it is very educative and interesting to see where it all started. Who
thought of amplifying a teapot? Experimenting to see if sounds can be produced
or reproduced? Who comes up with that? My man, Alvin Lucier did!
It is because of
these late composers, that we have our gratitude to thank for giving us
experimental music and allowing us to explore what else is possible. You do not
have to have a musical instrument to create sounds or music. I dare to even say
that it is still shifting and evolving. Lucier’s Nothing is Real, was long and
confused me as well, but ultimately I find it amazing that you can use a
teapot, amplify it, and it gives you sounds, like crazy but so cool!
P.s.: you said
we can be colloquial.
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