The Future of American Music

The “Insect Choir” by David Rothenberg consists of the composer himself playing the clarinet and the sounds of an insect swarm. The sounds of the swarm remind me as a listener of some kind of rustling. Nevertheless, the sound of the swarm is very well-known for the listener and is easily recognizable after knowing the title of the composition. The sound made by the insects has a very calming on me as a listener. This calming ambience is mostly caused by the steady flow of sounds without any major changes. The play of the clarinet by the composer disrupts the feeling of calm experienced by the listener since it breaks the steady flow of the swarm sounds. Additionally, the sounds made by the clarinet do not find in any way to the sounds made by the insects and can therefore also be seen as a rather uncomfortable noise. Due to the knowledge given by the composer about the swarm sounds appearing during the period of mating for the insects, the listener can perceive the sounds as the ...

Steve Reich’s composition “It’s Gonna Rain” was published in 1968 and can be put into the genre of minimal music. The composition itself consists only of the utterance “It’s gonna rain” which is being repeated and played in different speeds. The composition begins with the speech which ends with the utterance “It’s gonna rain”. The utterance mentioned is being repeated throughout the entire composition in various speeds. By using fast repetition, the listener can start to hear utterances or sounds that differ completely from the original sentence and thus make it hardly understandable. Only through concentrated listening, the listener could be able to keep on hearing the original sentence. I was able to hear a train ride and the noise created by a train while driving on the railroad. This noise can also be interpreted as a rhythm, produced through fast recurrence. In the beginning of the song, the sentence “It’s gonna rain” was still synchronized with the listener and therefore eas...

John Oswald’s “Plexure” was published in 1993 and contains a mixture of audio snippets of famous songs. The composition starts with a sound that can be seen as a resemblance of an explosion, followed by silence and a slow increase of sounds entering the composition. This process reminded me as a listener of the Big Bang, caused by a sudden explosion and the slow creation of life. At the beginning, it is hard to distinguish whether the composer used snippets of one song or snippets of several song. However, it is clearly noticeable that the sounds are played in reverse, which can be associated to time travel with the listener traveling through various eras of music. However, due to the random, achronological placement of genres throughout the composition, the listener can also perceive the composition as a compilation of music of the present. Shortly after, a lot of snippets from the Hip-Hop genre were used. The length of the snippets vary, making it difficult for the listener to co...

Cistern Pauline Oliveros performed her Composition with Goddard in the Dan Harpole Cistern in 2009. The hall itself was kept dark. Visitors had to use a ladder to get into the hall and use a flashlight to look through the room. Oliveros and Goddard did not use any words or lyrics in their performance. Instead, they focused on vocal ranges and sounds in combination with the reverb that is created through the empty space that only contains pillars to keep the hall intact. Due to the reverb, the listener can not easily know how many performers are in the hall since it sounds like there are several people in different positions in the hall, producing different sounds. The sounds themselves are in harmony with each other, which gives the impression of a choir in churches or other religious institutions. Apart from the vocal sounds, there were also sounds from different sources, that interrupt the harmony of the vocals. Giggling or sounds of objects that are being hit against the pillars...

Meredith Monk’s “Gotham Lullaby” was performed at the Lensic Center for the Performing Arts in 2004. Only a piano and the voice of the performer are needed for this composition. Gotham Lullaby starts with a harmonious piano play which is combined with the vocal performance of Meredith Monk. Just like Pauline Oliveiros, the performer uses her voice, but does not combine it with any lyrics or words. It can be assumed that the emphasis is more on the emotions and the meaning that will be conveyed through the melody of voice and piano. The emotion that can be felt in Gotham Lullaby are mostly sorrow and sadness, due to use of tones that I as a listener connect with sadness. However, the interpretation of the voice and the emotion that will be fel t is highly subjective and varies from listener to listener. Meredith Monk sometimes also uses very high notes which contain more air and are less clear than the rest of the tones used in this composition. Those sounds are rather disruptive th...

Alvin Lucier’s “Project 76 – Nothing is Real (Strawberry Fields Forever)” was performed in 1990. Lucier used a piano, a tape recorder, a sound system, and an amplified teapot for this performance. The Composition can be split in two separate parts. The first part starts with the composer playing on a regular piano. The sounds that are being created are very harmonious but contain a somber undertone which is being created by the reverb of the piano when lower tones are being played. The reverb sounds similar to the echo that is being created by Cage’s prepared piano. By looking at the title of the Composition, it is noticeable that the composer is playing his version of the song “Strawberry Fields Forever” by the Beatles which was released in 1967. However, the interpretation of Alvin Lucier differs from the original song: While many sounds in the original song by the Beatles are perceived to be very upbeat, the composition contains sounds that are dark than upbeat. There is also a ...

Philip Glass’s “Icct Hedral” was released in 1995 and is based on the original “Icct Hedral” by Aphex Twin. The only difference that can be seen is in the use of instruments: While Aphex Twin used regular instruments and electronic devices to create sounds, Philip Glass recreated the composition by using an orchestra. Throughout the composition, a dramatic and hectic undertone can be noticed. The composition shows a clear pattern of sounds with small differences between each repetition. However, the differences increase with every repetition. Strings play the main tones at the beginning but begin to show a difference in the length of the parts played: The part in which one string is being played repetitiously is being repeated more often as the composition progresses. Instruments and a choir are also being added with each repetition of the pattern, causing every repetition to derive from the previous one more and more. However, every member of the orchestra is following the same patt...

John Cage’s “Water Walk” was performed at a Television Show in 1960. The performance includes several objects that are known as ordinary household objects, such as a bathtub, or a cooking pot. John Cage also uses a different variation of a piano which is called “prepared piano”, a stopwatch, and a recording device. The Water Walk shows similarities to a performance of classical music, played by an orchestra. While an orchestra contains a variety of instruments, the Water Walk by John Cage replaces the instruments and uses household items instead. Another similarity can be seen at the precise timing for the usage of the objects: Just like an Orchestra, John Cage follows a strict plan to have the objects create the sound at the right time and therefore be in the right order. The performer also possesses the role of the director, since he is in control of the objects and creates the right sound at the right time, just like a director in an orchestra tells the instrumentalists when to pl...

William Basinski’s “The Disintergration Loops 2” was released in 2014. As the title says, the composition contains a continuous repetition of a tape in its’ state of decay. The tape used for this composition contains a harmonic and comfortable ambience for the listener, caused by a steady flow of sounds without any major changes or additions to the composition. The only change that can be noticed throughout the composition is the decay of the tape which seems to increase with every loop and therefore gets more noticeable for the listener. For me as a listener, the decay also serves as a rhythm or beat for the composition which remained in the background in the beginning but gets pushed into the foreground with an increase of its’ decay. The knowledge about the decay can also influence the listener and their interpretation of the composition. For me as a listener, the feeling of a peaceful death without pain was put into the foreground, due to the combination of the knowledge about ...

The composition “Become Ocean” by John Luther Adams was published in 2014. The composition shows a strong resemblance to the ocean itself on an aural and visual level. The listener could interpret the certain sounds and movements of the orchestra as waves and their intensity. The composition starts with sounds that cause a rather dystopian ambience due to the use of low, bass-heavy sounds which could resemble uncalm waves. Using rather high-pitch sounds, the image of an ocean in the process of calming down comes in mind for the listener. A constant switch between phases of peace and chaos is noticeable, caused by the use of certain sounds. This has a calming, yet dramatic effect for me in the position as a listener since the composition contains a steady switch between the phases, but also has subtle differences after each period of ocean phases. A dramatic entry of cymbal-like sounds can evoke the image of a major change that is happening in the ocean, such as an increase in sea ...

     The composition “Become Ocean” by John Luther Adams was published in 2014. The composition shows a strong resemblance to the ocean itself on an aural and visual level. The listener could interpret the certain sounds and movements of the orchestra as waves and their intensity.       The composition starts with sounds that cause a rather dystopian ambience due to the use of low, bass-heavy sounds which could resemble uncalm waves. Using rather high-pitch sounds, the image of an ocean in the process of calming down comes in mind for the listener. A constant switch between phases of peace and chaos is noticeable, caused by the use of certain sounds. This has a calming, yet dramatic effect for me in the position as a listener since the composition contains a steady switch between the phases, but also has subtle differences after each period of ocean phases.       A dramatic entry of cymbal-like sounds can evoke the image of a major ...