Skip to main content

John Luther Adams’s One That Stays All Winter

 

Reem Zedan 7711552

Prof. Dr. Bernd Herzogenrath

The Future of [American] Music

17 February 2022

 

John Luther Adams’s One That Stays All Winter

After a very long winter semester, we have finally reached the end of this with Sir John Luther Adams. I was filled with false hope because of the previous lecture’s enjoyable music. So it is safe to say that I was disappointed to realize that we went back to where we started: Music that makes me wonder what music is, how it is music, why it is music and most importantly who listens to this? Professor Herzogenrath definitely make me question my reality when he mentioned that Taylor Swift (a.k.a my God)  is a supporter of John Adams but because of that I will write this review with an extremely open mind and a very free spirit.

John Adams’s One That Stays All Winter begins with static sounds that later become clearer as the sound of birds, specifically sea-gulls, which made me think of the beach and summer then a high pitched tune joins in that keeps on changing volume-wise. This gives the sound a dynamic of movement. I say that because I felt like this sound was moving in my room, coming closer then walking away. Consequently, different sounds of speech and talking joined in. I could not comprehend what was being said and I also was not able to determine the gender of the multiple speakers because of the quality of the sound. Later, I was also able to detect dogs barking as a background noise behind all the talking. When the background noise disappears, I can hear an intense uncomfortable whistle that lasted a bit too long but by the end the piece is back to the sound of birds, which made me think of a forest in winter.

This might be a stretch but this piece made me think of the process of a year: the seasons changing, time passing, noise, people chatting, the many things that occur in the “background” of your life that you are aware and unaware of. The process of a year can be simultaneously a little and a lot, everything and nothing.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Listening Report on John Oswald: Plexure

 Sarah Kumar Dr. Bernd Herzogenrath The Future of (American) Music 06 Mar. 2023 Listening Report on John Oswald: Plexure According to John Oswald, “[a] plunderphone is a recognizable sonic quote, using the actual sound of something familiar which has already been recorded” (Lecture Slides 18). However, only if the source stays recognizable can it be called plunderphonics. In his album Plexure , several songs are played back and mixed together, thus creating a new sound. This is interesting because while the excerpts of songs that are used are recognizable or at least sound familiar to some degree, played backwards and mashed up as they are in Plexure , they create a new sound. Like on the cover of the album, on which a collage making up a man can be seen, the mixing of different songs played backwards gives a new feeling to something known. The way the songs are mixed makes them unintelligible. The meaning of the words of the original recordings are not able to be compr...
Post a Comment
Read more

John Cage – Inlets

  This does not sound like music to me. Depending on the interpretation of different players or performers, this piece will always sound different. In this case, it sounds to me like someone is walking through a cave with water at the bottom, dragging their feet through it. Sometimes it sounds like water in a toilet bowl, especially when we hear the water in a bigger shell being swished around. These sounds are relaxing in the background, it is like a gentle stream of water. I just wonder what went through the head of the composer while writing this piece. But I guess he had some experimental ideas that are interesting to try out. Those shells are quite pretty, I have never seen such big ones that are not broken. I was surprised when something else happened towards the end of the piece. That tone which came out of the one shell was so clear, it sounded like a trumpet. I didn’t know that shells can sound like that. It was quite beautiful. It was a nice way to end the piece. I di...
Post a Comment
Read more

William Basinski – The Disintegration Loops III

  The Disintegration Loops is a quartet of albums published in 2002 and 2003 by American avant-garde composer William Basinski. The pieces are made up of tape loop recordings that were played over time, with noise and crackles rising as the tape deteriorated. Basinski noticed this effect when attempting to convert his older recordings to digital format. The completion of the recordings coincided with the September 11, 2001 events, which Basinski witnessed and adds a deeper meaning to the composition. The composition is fascinating in many ways and makes the listener lose track of time. The tape loop recording had a very calming effect on me and put me in a trance-like state when I listened to it in its entirety. The tape loop is really soothing, so much so that I didn't even notice the loss of quality when I first listened to it. It makes you forget about time and allows you to really get into the piece capturing the calmness it exudes. You forget or don't really notice how i...
Post a Comment
Read more