Meredith
Monk’s musical piece “Ascent” is a nine-minute-long work that is based on the
haunting vocals accompanied by the string instruments, creating a unity of
different elements. It begins with the string instruments and Monk’s haunting
vocal, then goes in a soaring tune. The changes in vocal parts of the first
couple of minutes with the male and female vocalists happen as if every
vocalist introduces themselves. Afterwards, we do not hear singers for about a
minute and instruments get under the spotlight. This short break comes to an
end with the singers entering altogether. The uplifting vocals together with
the soaring melody are evocative of our inner spiritual journey.
As
its name suggests, the piece illustrates some kind of ascent until the end of
the seventh minute, which then slowly fades away. Following the seventh minute,
the vocals and the instruments do not overlap that overpoweringly anymore. The
listener is given a sense of communication between the instruments and the
vocals that sounds like the final phase of ascending is approaching. It is then
not uplifting anymore; however, it prepares the listener to slowly start descending.
“Ascent”
is a powerful and evocative experience of some spiritual journey that takes
about nine and a half minutes. With the use of non-verbal vocalization, the
tonal qualities of Monk’s voice come to the forefront throughout the music. It
reminds me of Freytag’s Pyramid starting with the slow tunes and vocalizations
that lead the way to the journey upwards to the climax, the reaching of the
climax in the middle of the piece with the high vocals alongside the loud
string instruments, then finally carrying it to the resolution slowly by the use
of lower tones and the separation of vocals from the instruments. Overall,
those strong elements provided by the artist make the listener connect with the
more profound ambiance.
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