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Listening report: John Oswald

 John Oswald is a Canadian composer and saxophonist known for his plunder phonics (Source 1). This means he uses samples of existing records and creates his own work. In DAB “Oswald pursues two compositional strategies. First, the repetitive bass line and its dance-oriented character is subverted by truncation and permutation“ (Holm-Hudson 21). The second strategy is “the distinctive timbre of Micheal Jackson´s voice is magnified by what Oswald describes as `snap scan´ technique“. Further, Holm-Hudson states: “Oswald demonstrates that timbre conveys identity in music more readily than melody or harmony can, and this fact may be problematic for future cases of copyright law.“ (24).

 

I chose to listen to DAB for my listening report because it is an inspiring piece whose origins lay with Michael Jackson, one of the greatest singers of all time. DAB begins with a ticking sound which reminds me of a clock, after a few seconds I notice the voice of Micheal Jackson which gets clearer as the time goes by. The voice is interrupted by various tones which I can’t identify. At minute 2:35 the voice appears again and is clearly identifiable as Micheal Jackson at minute 3:09. At 3:42 the voice is gone and various sounds remain. Some sounds remind me of rain. At 6:36 only one sound remains and the work ends. Finally, I can say: it is not a piece to relax but it has its own appeal, as I notice how much thought is put into it by Oswald.

 

 

 

Sources:

1.     https://www.allmusic.com/artist/john-oswald-mn0000187711/biography

2.     Holm-Hudson, Kevin.“Sampling and John Oswald’s Plunderphonics“. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1513241.pdf

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