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Meredith Monk – Ascent

 

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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