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Meredith Monk - Gotham Lullaby

 

The following report speech is about Meredith Monk’s song and performance “Gotham Lullaby“. The first part will describe the song, its’ tones and melody, and Monk’s use of sub-phrases. Afterward, I will report how I personally felt while listening to “Gotham Lullaby“.

The song and Monk’s singing of sub-phrases are accompanied by piano, played by herself. “Gotham Lullaby“ is split into three shorter sub phrases, in which she sings mainly lutes as the following: “: [wah lah so]  [wah lah lah ley lah lah lah seh na na seh]  [wah la la – , la la la la]“. The song is four minutes and 33 seconds long. Monk’s song can be described as harmonious, smooth, and regular. This harmony and the regular pattern of the song is interrupted twice from minute 1.47 to 1.53 and 2.21 to 2.38 by Meredith Monk giving high-pitched and moaning tones forth. Nevertheless, the overall pattern of phrasing and the melody of “Gotham Lullaby“ remains constant. In fact, Meredith Monk is known for her use of syllables and sounds instead of using real words and sentences. Hence, Monk singing syllables and tones give the impression of her inventing a new language with which she can express her emotions, intimate thoughts, and feelings; it seems as if the fully formed English language or other languages are not enough to express herself. Furthermore, the pattern of the piano playing remains constantly the same and the the chords and notes do not demonstrate a diverse variation. Overall, the song’s pitch consists of higher tones.

Monk’s “Gotham Lullaby“ reminded me of a traditional folksong. Monk’s use of syllables and tones creates the impression of strategy and coincidence at the same time; it seems as if Monk exactly knows what to sing and which pitches to use and concurrently sings intuitively from a gut feeling. In addition to that, as the title of the song “Gotham Lullaby“ shows, the song reminds me of a lullaby. Lullabies in general reawaken well-being, harmonious, positive, familiar, and homey feelings, and impressions. Besides, the tone of humming has a further calming and comforting impact on the listener. Monk ends her song by fading away her piano playing which does not create an impression of imperfection and incompleteness.

From my point of view, “Gotham Lullaby“ is a calming song full of emotions. Although Meredith Monk does not use a real language, but only syllables, and tones, her emotions, thoughts and feelings are clearly communicated throughout her ordinary music. Overall, music is an instrument to communicate, share and express thoughts and feelings. However, I liked how she still conveys her idea of music and feelings by only using sub-phrases.

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