Skip to main content

Steve Reich – PENNdulum Music

 

That was just horrible. I don’t understand how this can be called music, because these are just horrific sounds. A pain in my ears. But I guess anything that consists of sounds can be called music. This, however, looked more like an experiment to me. From the bystanders’ first response it seems they weren’t sure it would work the way they expected it to, but it did.

They set up four microphones hanging upside down next to four speakers to capture the feedback sounds. Then they simultaneously dropped all microphones in an opposite pendulum motion, which made them swing by the speakers on the ground. Whenever that happened, there was some feedback noises, which often were high pitched sounds that rang in my ears.

Normally I like to listen to the pieces several times to get a better listen to them, but this one I could barely listen to once. I kept checking when it would be over because my ears started to hurt from the high pitch noise.

I was very surprised by the positive responses of the bystanders. They really seemed to enjoy it and were wowed by the effect. One guy even started grooving at some point. But I could not discover a rhythm, nor find pleasure in any of it. I was just glad when they finally pulled the plugs, the silence was heavenly.

I did notice towards the end that some people were also starting to cover their ears, seems like I was not the only one who didn’t fully enjoy it. And yet again, I have no idea how someone can get this thought and be like: Oh yeah, let’s try and make everybody’s ears bleed. It will be fun!

Reich sure had some weird ideas.

Comments

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...

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...

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...