Skip to main content

Listening Report to Pierre Schaeffer – Valse

 

After torturing myself with Stockhausen’s Kontakte, Pierre Schaeffers Valse was a boon to my poor ears. Somehow it felt like there was a rhythm and almost a melody that made it, at least in the beginning, entertaining to listen to the piece. Even though while listening to it in a continuous loop it quickly became annoying. Nevertheless, I found this piece particularly exciting and interesting when listening to it. One reason for this is the way in which this piece of music was created. Maybe I only liked the parts that Pierre Schaeffer put together for this sonic collage, because it is a variation of waltz.      
Because to me it always sounded like you were rewinding a tape, I started to wonder if it would make a difference if you tried to play this piece backwards. Every time I listened to it, I tried to understand the conversation and interpret what was happening. It had something dramatic and yet entertaining, almost like I was trying to solve a riddle. There was certainly a younger woman, a young man and probably a slightly older women talking on the record. And it was presumably something in French. The chunks of conversation also make me laugh a little bit every time. It's kind of reminiscent of the way some people imagine the language of extraterrestrials. Or as if you want to parody the way foreign languages sound to some people. It actually made me remember an episode of Friends where Phoebe tries to teach Joe some French words and everything he says sounds like gibberish.

At the same time, it reminded me of a competition from the radio where the song is played backwards, and you have to guess who the artist is or the title of the song. Furthermore, you could also think it is a sound file that is quickly pushed forward, as if you had increased the speed of the turntable.

The constant listening has again created a movie or rather a scene in my mind, corresponding to the piece Central Park in the dark by Charles Ives. This time it was a scene from a romantic movie similar to the ones from the 50s or 60s, in which the supposed couple meets for the first time and dances together. I basically thought of Walt Disney's production of Cinderella where she and the prince dance together until she has to run away before her evil stepmother sees her and she loses her glass slipper. And it is precisely this part that is being rewound on the VHS tape and Schaeffer's piece is giving the sound to it.

This piece is the kind of avant-garde experimental music I like. It makes me curious about more works by Schaeffer. It doesn't hurt to listen to it and it always encourages my imagination.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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

Pauline Oliveros – The Goddard in the Dan Harpole Cistern

  After watching Dan Harpole's film of Goddard in the Cistern, one is struck by how creepy the location appears and feels. In the light, you can just make out a lengthy ladder leading down into a concrete-walled area. It's absolutely dark, with only the top hatch and a small lamp providing lighting. This sequence accounts for a significant portion of the plot. Three persons are seen climbing up and down the ladder, which might be regarded the music piece's official start. Additionally, while the name "Dan Harpole Cistern" suggests a vast space, it appears to be a homemade video. A hum and other vocal noises travel across the room, bouncing off the walls. The women's voices generate a hum that contributes to the room's unique feel. The beautiful singing is interrupted by metal fragments falling on the floor. One would ask how much thought went into the sounds, given that the majority of them appear to be chosen at random. The emphasis is not on making sound...
Post a Comment
Read more

John Oswald – Plexure (Full Album)

  Jon Oswald was known for his Plunderphonics music pieces, where he created new pieces from already existing music recordings of famous artists and reworked them. Artists like Michael Jackson, who was also part of the cover on Plunderphonic, The Beatles, James Brown, Bing Crosby but also classical musicians like Beethoven and Bach were part of his pieces.   The first minute and a half of his album consists of a wild mix of R&B and hip-hop songs. They are single, very short sequences, about 2-3 seconds long, which were cut together. The first song was introduced with a sound that reminded me of Michael Jackson's Thriller. From minute five to about minute seven, the use of rock & roll music was recognizable. At the end, I recognized Madonna, Nirvana and again Michael Jackson, among others. Personally, I can hardly identify with this kind of music, because listening to the album, I felt the compilation was relatively arbitrary and not balanced with each other. I recogniz...
Post a Comment
Read more