Skip to main content

Pauline Oliveros with Goddard in the Dan Harpole Cistern

 

Reem Zedan 7711552

Prof. Dr. Bernd Herzogenrath

The Future of [American] Music

02 February 2022

 

Pauline Oliveros with Goddard in the Dan Harpole Cistern

The video starts with a couple of musicians talking in front of a ladder. Throughout the chatter, you can not help but notice the echoing effect in their speech. Yet, this kind of echoing  is a familiar sound. The location of the video is in front of a water tank and the purpose of the ladder is for the musicians to enter the water tank and make music inside of it. The result of this experiment and/or method are definitely eccentric and special.

I was a bit taken back when the singing inside of the tank occurred; even though I was expecting a new sound and prepared for something different. I do not possess the right musical vocabulary to describe it but the echoing had so much depth. The laughter of the camerawoman that followed the singing confirmed to me that the sound that was produced was more objectively than subjectively eerie. For me, it sounded like a reverse-echo effect, a vibration of sound that was coming out from within the source, instead of just repeating the properties of a sound in a slightly different manner, which is what I perceive as “normal” echoing effect.

The final singing segment of the video was definitely my favorite part. I would go as far as describing it as angelic. It was evident that the musicians took their time to understand how the properties of sound change inside of the tank and then used it to their best advantage. This made me perceive the tank not only as a setting for the experiment, but also as a musical instrument. I can not help but remember and draw connections between this and Lucier’s teapot analogy. Both Oliveros and Lucier excessively thought of how the setting influences sounds/music through unconventional methods and ideas and it is equally intriguing and entertaining to hear and see their visions come to life.

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