Skip to main content

Listening Report of John Cage’s “Water Walk”

 Patryk Merci

The Future of American Music Matriculation number: 7613841 Dr. Herzogenrath

WS 22/23

 

 

Listening Report of John Cage’s “Water Walk”

 

 

 

John Cage was an unconventional composer, because he believed that noise in itself would be important for the future of music, as he perceived noise as a form of music. In his piece “Water Walk” he manages to capture different noises made by common household items and organize them in a way that creates noticeable rhythm and purpose. He manages to use every household item in a certain way that in some portions of the piece does not even have a slight indication that it could be water making those sounds. Meanwhile, water is the central element in the piece, being responsible for developing and upholding the atmosphere.

 

 

The piece begins with a sound that resembles fast drums, which creates anticipation and reminds of intensive moments in movies when something is about to happen. However, it does not reveal what type of sounds should be expected next, which contributes to a mysterious atmosphere. Immediately afterwards, there is a sudden high-pitch sound which is almost like wiping a wet window, the type of sound very typical for science fiction horrors, as it has a certain ominous aura. Yet once again, the piece does not follow into that ominous rhythm, as it takes another turn when Cage continuous to use items that create a light and slow-paced drum sounds, giving the piece a more welcoming acoustical appearance for a couple of seconds. Following that, a sound resembling a pistol shot furtherly enhances the rhythm, mirroring punchy electronic percussion samples. In this moment the piece starts emphasizing true water sounds, as a sound of boiling water precedes water drops and taking on water. The atmosphere of the piece changes once again, as it is no longer mysterious or ominous, but instead comes back to anticipation which later also introduces a peaceful tranquility. This process also resembles diving and then reemerging on the surface, which is humorously accompanied by a sound of squeaking toy duck, usually found in kids’ bathtubs. By doing that, Cage attempts to create a multidimensional experience which makes the

listener feel as if they were in the water themselves. However, this lasts only a brief moment, as the subsequent sound of piano reminds that it is only a music piece, as if guiding the audience to prevent it from getting lost in the organization of different sounds. As the piece comes to an end, continuous smashing sounds once again resemble punchy electronic percussion, being also accompanied by the sound of falling objects, which together create a faster paced rhythm.

 

 

Overall, the piece invites the audience to try and interpret it in a way that reminds of experiences from its everyday life. The organization could be compared to a swimming competition, where drum sounds provide an opening sequence which is followed by a gun shot that starts the competition, followed by the swimmers jumping into water and then reemerging.
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

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

Pierre Schaeffer - Étude pathétique

  Pierre Schaefer begins the piece with sounds produced by drums and similar percussion instruments. One hears the sound of an object spinning and then coming to a stop. I assume it is a circular object, like a cymbal or hi-hat of a drum kit, that spins until it comes to a stop. Sounds of a locomotive follow, continuing with a mixture of drums and spinning objects as well as voices. There are slight parallels here with another piece by Schaeffer, "etude aux chemins de fer," in which he has the musical piece consist of sounds of trains and locomotives. I also recognize an accordion and a violin playing rapidly, accompanied by human sounds that are not really decipherable. By combining all these background sounds and using human voices, Schaeffer creates an exciting atmosphere while listening to the piece, and the listener's auditory senses are constantly challenged to decipher all the details of the sounds. At times one could be reminded of a scene from a scary movie, at l...
Post a Comment
Read more