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Pauline Oliveros with Goddard in the Dan Harpole Cistern

 Author: Julia Ranft

B.A. American Studies (HF), English Studies (NF)

Email: s0173273@stud.uni-frankfurt.de

Matrikelnummer: 7485864

The Future of (American) Music

Prof. Dr. Bernd Herzogenrath

Listening Report 3

Pauline Oliveros with Goddard in the Dan Harpole Cistern

            The first 5 minutes of the piece are devoted to preparation and quiet conversation. People talk to each other and move about in this cistern-like building. Every sound picked up by the microphone is strongly characterized by an echo, since the room seems to be completely empty except for a few people and equipment. After about half of the composition you can hear voices that sound like songs. I would compare it to the songs of sirens in mythology. It is particularly noticeable that despite the silence, it is never really still, since every step, every movement produces a sound and this is reproduced very amplified. In between, the siren-like sounds again and again. At the end of the piece you can also hear a person seeming to hit something. All in all, the mood of the piece is very dark and minimalistic.

            It feels like an eternal echo, which seems to have no end and if you get involved with the sounds they are very transcendental and calming despite the gloomy surroundings you have a feeling of meditation and calming. At the beginning you sometimes feel a bit depressed and confused, which is also due to the conversations that can be heard in the room, but when the songs start, you feel like you are in a dream that doesn't want to let you go, which is why I made the reference to draw the siren from mythology. You could listen to the sounds continuously until at the end there is this destructive noise, which is probably caused by a metal banging. At this point, the piece comes to an end and the listener is pulled out of the dream or transcendental state.

            Pauline Oliveros created the philosophy of deep listening with her recording and through the ambient sounds that were used by the cisterne as its own instrument, reverbe sounds are created that give the word ambience and ambient music a completely new sound. It is clear that the creation of the music itself had a great attraction for her, and the sound of the cistern or the cistern as an instrument itself has a formative influence on the overall product that Oliveros ultimately created with it. Ambient Music with the use of large and hollow environments, reverb and sustain to accompany the vocals is what Oliveros has created with this type of modern music.

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