Skip to main content

Listening Report on John Luther Adam’s Become Ocean

 Sarah Kumar

Dr. Bernd Herzogenrath

The Future of (American) Music

05 Mar. 2023

Listening Report on John Luther Adam’s Become Ocean

            The composition starts off with a slowly rising sound, reminiscent of the way waves start to form and develop in the ocean. The woodwind instruments are going up and down the same pattern, and then the brass instruments come in at once, again reminding me of a wave that has formed and is collapsing back into the ocean. The harp signifies the receding of the waves and the calming of the ocean, before the string instruments pick up pace again and the brass instruments come in to create more depth in sound. Even the movement of the conductor and the musicians on the string instruments move their arms up and down like a wave, thus visually supporting what the sound is trying to convey. The percussion instruments add to the sound of ocean as they remind me of drops of water that make sound on the ocean’s surface.

The title Become Ocean hints at something or someone becoming the ocean – or rather, a part of it. It speaks of the environmental changes that occurred and are still occurring to this day and that in the end, as the conductor in the beginning of the piece said, everything will return – or become – the ocean again (Become Ocean 03:05). The rising and falling of the instruments can therefore both mean the rising and falling of waves as well as the expanding of the ocean as it continues to grow. The ocean covers about 71 percent of the earth’s surface, and it is not so far-fetched to think that this amount will keep growing and covering more of the earth.

At about halfway into the video, the orchestra grows quieter and more subdued. Only a few string instruments and the piano can be heard, softly playing. As the sound picks up in volume again, the harp comes in, and the string instruments grow louder again. After the previous softness of the instruments, it almost feels like a new beginning, as if the ocean has succeeded in absorbing everything on earth and is starting over fresh. The last third of Become Ocean continues on rising and falling in volume with the woodwind instrument and harp in the foreground. And like before, the string instruments rise in sound before receding again, like waves, with the soft sounds of the drums in the background bringing in the depth of the ocean. It evokes a feeling not dissimilar to actually looking at the ocean and seeing its enormous size and movement.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

Herzogenrath, Bernd. Become Ocean. Google Drive – Reader FUTURE OF MUSIC, 8 Feb. 2023, https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1FeBiOML1M5uZ5oAGdxQaa0hxA1EOclss?usp=sharing. Accessed 5 Mar. 2023.
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