Skip to main content

Listening Report of Steve Reich’s “Pendulum Music”

 

Patryk Merci

The Future of American Music

Matriculation number: 7613841

Dr. Herzogenrath

WS 22/23

Listening Report 5

 

Listening Report of Steve Reich’s “Pendulum Music”

 

What is specifically interesting about Reich’s “Pendulum Music” is that the sounds created by the phenomenon of swinging microphones are very familiar to the listener and almost always resemble a sound of some item or event that is already known. Moreover, it is also worth noting that the output is heavily influenced by physics and the pace in which the microphones move.

 

            The beginning of the piece is immediate and does not leave a lot of room for the buildup of any anticipation, with the first sounds resembling heavy drums combined with a chirping of a bird. Both of those sounds fit together perfectly and provide an exotic atmosphere which reminds of wilderness and danger. Similar sounds to those were also used in the latest marvel movie, Wakanda Forever. Those particular sounds are supposed to give the listener a feeling of tribal rituals and reveal some parts of the African culture. Nevertheless, the combination is not really consistent as the piece continues, because eventually the drums and the chirping sounds get desynchronized, with chirping coming a few moments later than the drums, which occurs because of physics and the way the hanging microphones start to move slower. This effect completely changes both the pace and the rhythm of the piece. The rhythm is very easily distinguishable, especially further into the piece, as the drums intensify and start sounding as if multiple beats were played in an organized way. However, the chirping sound actively changes into a high screeching or squeaking noise, which makes it very difficult to listen to the piece, because of how intense it is for the ear. The drum sound eventually stops too, leaving place for an electrical trumpet, which also resembles the sound of a malfunctioning device. At this point, the piece no longer offers the original, exotic aura of a wilderness, turning into an annoyance instead. The high screeching now evolves even further, transforming into a rusted swing on a children’s playground. However, the microphones almost come to a stop, and so do the drum and trumpet sounds, which now resemble an electric elephant, so the original touch of wilderness is preserved, even if not as easily distinguishable as before. The piece becomes significantly harder to listen to as the microphones slow down, with the rhythm slowly fading away and the rich variation of sounds disappearing, until the power being finally cut off and the piece ending on a rather bad note caused by the developed disturbance.

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

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