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Listening Report to Edgar Varèse – Ionisation

 

From the title of the piece, you could get a vague impression of what awaits you. However, I did not think directly of the process of an ionisation when listening to the music. In fact, my first thought was of the sound of a marching band or military music. I really enjoyed the fact that these are all percussion instruments. It was a nice change from the other pieces of music I heard before and after. After listening to Water Walk, this piece sounds more like the kind of music you would consider as classical music, even if it is still very experimental. Although after the first listening, I could not recognize a clear melody. You get a feeling for the rhythm of the piece of music by listening to it several times. It has a different kind of rhythm, not like a band consisting only of string players. I would say this kind of music has a rougher edge than a piece of music only played with strings. A piece that is composed only for stringed bowed instruments feels somehow smoother to me. This piece has a kind of a chaotic interplay of percussion instruments, but in a certain way it fits together.   

At the beginning of the piece, there is this sensation of the calm before the storm that slowly builds up. You do not really know where the journey with this music is going, and I think this sudden and unexpected but perfectly timed drumbeat is increasing this tension. The journey it took me on was on a hot day in the savannah. Where the air is standing still and you could see the heat flickering above the ground. For me, it was as if a group of elephants or rhinoceroses were making their way to the water and scaring a few other smaller animals along with them. And a little further back in the bushes, a few hungry lionesses are gathering, getting ready for the hunt. With the insertion of the triangle, I somehow had to think of gazelles that unconsciously approach the water, not noticing the lurking danger. More and more animals gather around the water and with the sound of the gong they finally become aware of the approaching danger. And the setting of the dual gong reminds me of the gong strike that marks the beginning of a fight. In this case, I thought of a lioness and a cheetah who chose the same young and inexperienced gazelle as prey. And instead of concentrating on the hunt, the enemy must first be eliminated, with the risk of frightening all the other animals. With the bell-like sound I thought of the two predators starting to sneak around each other. And just when the tension is about to break, the instruments suddenly stop sounding and my subconscious wonders how the fight would have ended.

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