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Listening Report – Meredith Monk: Gotham Lullaby

Meredith Monk’s “Gotham Lullaby” was performed at the Lensic Center for the Performing Arts in 2004. Only a piano and the voice of the performer are needed for this composition.

Gotham Lullaby starts with a harmonious piano play which is combined with the vocal performance of Meredith Monk. Just like Pauline Oliveiros, the performer uses her voice, but does not combine it with any lyrics or words. It can be assumed that the emphasis is more on the emotions and the meaning that will be conveyed through the melody of voice and piano.

The emotion that can be felt in Gotham Lullaby are mostly sorrow and sadness, due to use of tones that I as a listener connect with sadness. However, the interpretation of the voice and the emotion that will be felt is highly subjective and varies from listener to listener. Meredith Monk sometimes also uses very high notes which contain more air and are less clear than the rest of the tones used in this composition. Those sounds are rather disruptive than suitable for the song. The weak high notes in the song can also be interpreted as a dying cry for help in a sad world.

The title “Gotham Lullaby” fits to the Composition since the melody of the voice also has a calming and soothing effect on the listener which is complemented with the steady flow of the piano and the pleasant sounds that are being created. The use of the word “Gotham” reminds me as a listener of Gotham City, a fictive city in the DC comics universe which, especially at night, is filled with danger, fear, and sadness. These emotions can also be felt during the performance. Therefore, the Gotham Lullaby can be seen as an escape from a world that is filled with dangers, fears, and sadness and is meant to soothe the listener.

Gotham Lullaby shows an advantage of Meredith Monk’s use of voice. The listener is not bound to any kind of interpretation by the composer and can freely interpret the song with their own emotions and experiences and therefore put their own words into the composition.

Just like Pauline Oliveiros, Meredith Monk does not use regular words or any kind of lyrics in her songs. Instead, both use sounds made by human voice in their compositions. However, Pauline Oliveiros has a bigger emphasis on the spatial aspects of sounds and how it behaves regarding echos. Meredith Monk focuses on the emotions conveyed through the sounds.
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