Skip to main content

Lucier

 Alvin Lucier

Project 76 “Nothing is Real“

"Nothing is Real“ by Alvin Lucier is a rather pleasant piece to listen to, I would argue. The piano is an instrument that can hardly sound “bad“ in the first place. Additionally, the notes he plays are enjoyable for the ear. The piece in general is very slow as the notes are held very long and as there are many breaks in between a set of notes. I think for the western ear this is a piece which is easy to follow, easy to digest, and pleasant to listen to. It is comprehensible, there are no notes that sound “weird“ and no sounds that feel unnatural. It seems like a normal, easy to play piano piece.

            Yet, there comes the plot twist. The pianist stops playing at some point, closes the piano, and directs his attention towards a teapot. I asked myself then who’s playing now, as the music still continues. The pianist opens and closes the teapot by lifting and dropping the lid and I guess the idea is that the sound is captured in the teapot and is then released again. I personally, do not think that this does anything to the sound or changes the acoustics in any way, but maybe these are just my unprofessional ears.

            Lucier was all about deconstruction with this piece. He stretched out the notes and slowed them down by pressing the sustain paddle continuously. I guess he imagined sound to be of no limit. I would argue that with “Noting is real“ he showed that we are unconsciously limiting sound by playing it in a room (or keeping it in a teapot) and if we let it free, say by removing the roof of a concert hall, as Lucier once intended to do, we hear the most of it.

            I kind of like the idea Lucier displays with this piece. However, as I claim to know, music halls are architecturally constructed in a careful and very challenging way to get the most of the sound and to have the best acoustics. If one would remove the roof of such a concert hall, all sound would be lost, wouldn’t it? If one would play a piano outside in a field, I would guess that the volume and the completeness of a tone might get lost in a way and that our human ear would have trouble really hearing the complete piece; important elements would get lost and carried away by acts of nature such as wind or weather, right?

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