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William Basinski’s DP3

 

Reem Zedan 7711552

Prof. Dr. Bernd Herzogenrath

The Future of [American] Music

02 February 2022

 

William Basinski’s DP3

            Wiliam Basinski’s DP3 is so relaxing it made me fall asleep in class. It was a very rough day for me, but his music still managed to calm me down. I am listening to the piece for the second time while I am writing this response paper and I feel the same initial calming effect. It is almost hypnotizing and has a very zen vibe. I could definitely imagine this kind of music being played in a yoga studio or a rehabilitation center.

The piece is also very haunting. The longer you listen to it, the more depth it seems to possess. For me, the music resembled the circle of life. It can be beautiful and haunting, happy and sad, light and dark but it keeps going. Life is similar to the repetitive loops in the music because everything is in constant motion all the time. I also noticed occasional static noises in the piece. These glitches of harmony are another layer to the symbolism of life. The glitches do not stop the music or lessen its beauty; They are an essential part of the music that makes it special and unique.

Forty minutes of listening to Basinski made me visit interesting psychological parts of my brain. It definitely facilitated deep thoughts and self reflection. It also helped me wander to a very philosophical arch. If this music is perceived in my brain as a bunch of paradoxes and it extremely symbolizes life then the beauty or ugliness of the world is purely a perception issue because both of these parts of the world are tightly intertwined with one another. There is beauty everywhere in this world, you just have to be willing to see it.

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