Terry Riley’s In C, ‘the founding work of the musical movement called minimalism’ (Carl, 2009, p.4), is written out on a single page of score that consists of 53 isolated units. It is intended for group performance, during which each member is to repeat one of the 53 aforementioned modules at will. Each performer is free to move on to the next module whenever he/she wishes, and the essence of the music as a whole is derived from the harmonies that superimposed modules give rise to.
Pierre Schaeffer’s Etude aux Chemins de Fer [Study on Railways], which ‘is widely recognized as the first piece of musique concrète’ (Horus Kemwer, 2007, para.2), exhibits recordings of trains that have been spliced, manipulated, and then structured in a way similar the method exhorted by classical convention.
When analysing any Schaeffer work, it is useful to align what one is hearing with some of Schaeffer’s musical philosophies. In his work Solfège de l'objet sonore he illustrates one of these musical philosophies by presenting to the listener two realisations of a small excerpt from Bach’s Musical Offering, one from a harpsichord (which is marked ‘Schaeffer's Bach Commentary Part 1’ on the accompanying CD), and the other from an orchestra (which is marked ‘Schaeffer's Bach Commentary Part 2 on the accompanying CD) (The reader should note that on the original tape, Schaeffer reads out his writings after each musical excerpt finishes. These narrations have been deliberately removed, as the points he puts forward will be covered in the following). Schaeffer (1967) as translated by Reibel (2005), points out that ‘we become aware of the fact that one dimension is missing from the conventional score, that of “timbre”’ (p.17). This statement falls in ...
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Bibliography
Books
Schaeffer, P. and Reibel, G. (2005) Solfége de l’objet sonore [Music Thoery of the Sound Object]. France: Les Éditions de Dreslincourt
Carl, R. (2009) Terry Riley’s In C. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press
Music Scores
Riley, T. (1989) In C [Music Score] New York: Celestial Harmonies
Weblogs
Kemwer, H. (2007) Case Study: Pierre Schaeffer. Against the Modern World. Weblog [Online] 11th November. Available from: http://againstthemodernworld.blogspot.co.uk/2007/11/case-study-pierre-schaeffer.html [Accessed 29/01/14]
Lectures
Emmerson, S. (2013) Musique concrète, spectromorphology, sound sculpting & transformation from MUST2003:Ideas in Music and Sonic Arts. De Montfort University, Clepham Building on 11th October [Accessed 29/01/14]
Journals
Gopinath, S. (2011) Terry Riley’s In C (review). American Music, Vol.29 no.3. pp.388-391
In Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now, Douglass Rushkoff discusses his interpretation of the relationship of society and rapidly evolving technology. He believes that as technology progresses, society becomes increasingly dependent on it and eventually loses touch with the traditional sense of time and reality. Through the book Rushkoff makes several insightful observations about the development of society and how technologies were often the driving force behind these “Present Shocks.”
The topic of technology and our society has become a very controversial subject today. Many people believe that technology is an essential component of our modern world, helping us to improve communication from farther distances as well as giving us easy access to important information. On the other hand, there is the opinion that too much technology is affecting social interactions and our basic development. “Technology…is a queer thing, it brings you great gifts with one hand, and stabs you in the back with the other.” (Carrie Snow.) The CBC Documentary “Are We Digital Dummies” displayed the pros and cons when it comes to modern technology that we use in the western world everyday.
Technology, Culture, Society. Ed. Crowley, D.J., and P. Heyer. Allyn & Bacon/Pearson, 2010. 74-77. Print.
Anderson, Rick. "Johann Adolf Hasse. (Sound Recording Reviews)." Notes 58.4 (2002): 902. Academic OneFile. Web. 14 Mar. 2014.
Gabrieli, Giovanni. Sacrae Symphoniae: Sonata Pian e Forte. John Wallace, Simon Wright, and the Wallace Collection. Simon Wright. Nimbus Records NI5236, 2012. Streaming audio. http://naxosmusiclibrary.com.
The human ability to perceive sound is often taken for granted and is erroneously considered, by most, to be secondary in importance to sight. It is true that our primary understanding of the world develops through sight, but sound is responsible for our ability to communicate with one another through both concrete and abstract means, as well as for defining the nuances that shape our surroundings. Without sound, humans would be alienated in their own uncertainty; unable to express the fears and aspirations which are common to our condition. Sound has the unique ability to transcend boundaries, cultures, and ideologies through speech, music, and the noises which we distinguish categorically through memory and experience. It is this transcendental quality of sound which Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck chose as a central theme in the film “The Lives of Others”. The film expresses beautifully the effect that music and language have upon our ability to feel empathy and compassion. The use of sound in the film explores the human potential for change and transformation from our basest instincts toward nobler causes.
Willoughby, David. "Chapter 11." The World of Music. 7th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2012. 249-53. Print.
The proliferation of graphic scores emerging in Europe and America from the mid-1950s has had a profound impact on musical thought, broadening links between performers and composers, audiences and art forms. Exploration of notational methods based on graphics flourished rapidly and diversely during the fifties and sixties, primarily as a trend amongst young radicals. So many composers producing scores of this kind used a personal vocabulary of symbols – often creating different notation systems for each work – that the effectiveness of their approaches in realising a sonic concept can be assessed only on a case-by-case basis. But the significance of early graphic scores does not depend entirely on how they sound; rather it lies in their capacity to accommodate or even to generate new forms, techniques and mediums, and to challenge notions of what constitutes a musical composition. In addition, these works demonstrate that notation can extend beyond instructional functionality to allow for prominent interpretive and aleatoric elements, and can harbour an intrinsic aesthetic value of its own, apparent before a single note is sounded.
This concert is held by the Stony Brook University music department and is to perform seven pieces of music written by seven student composers. The concert is performed in Recital Hall of Staller Center in Stony Brook University. Since it is a small hall, audiences are very close to the performers. In fact, it is the first time I am this close to the performers and the sound for me is so clear and powerful that seems like floating in front of my eyes. Among the seven pieces, “Ephemeral Reveries” and “Gekko no mori” are piano solo, “Two Songs for Joey” is in piano and marimba, “Suite” and “Fold Duet No. 1” are in woodwinds, “Elsewhere” is played by string groups, and “e, ee, ree, and I was free” is in vocal. Personally, I like the sound of piano and guitar the best. Therefore, in the latter part I will analysis two pieces in piano, “Gekko no mori” and “Two Songs for Joey”.
Arnold, Denis, ed. The New Oxford Companion to Music. Vol. 2. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1983.
Music and the relationships of music have changed drastically in our society. The course of studies and the evaluations of the applications of the technology of music, the making and the listening of music have changed in the way we listen to music, the styles of music in our society and in the media. The importance of the technology in music today, has, over the past century been charted through the study of musical examples and through viewing how human values are reflected in this century's timely music. There are very many different types of music that are listened to. There are readings, writings, lectures and discussions on all the different types of music.
Pollack, Alan W.. “Notes on "Revolution" and "Revolution 1".” soundscapes.info. 1997. 3 October 2009 .
There has yet to be a culture discovered which lacks music. Making music is seen historically to be as fundamental as the characteristically human activities as drawing and painting. Many even go so far as to compare music to language and claim that music functions as a "universal language." But it is rarely the same music, however, that all peoples respond to. What is it that we are responding to when we listen to music? Strictly speaking, music is not a language, (1) because it has neither outside referents nor easily detectable meaning. Ludwig Wittgenstein explains that although we understand music in a similar way as we understand language, music is not a language because we still cannot communicate through music as we can through language. (2) More recently, Susanne Langer argues that although we understand music as symbol, because we are so caught up in seeing symbolic form function like language we tend to want to make music into a language. But, Langer argues, music is not a kind of language (3) because the significance of music lies not in w...
Wishart, Trevor. "From Sound Morphing to the Synthesis of Starlight. Musical experiences with the Phase Vocoder over 25 years." Musica/Tecnologia Music , 2013: 65-67.
Every musical system around the world is a complex cultural phenomenon. The culture underlie a series of concepts which impart the musical system into the other basic cultural activities of the society. It is then defined and conceptualized by the society at large and then ingrained in the cultural phenomena. Thus, in order to fully understand a specific music of a particular culture, we must examine it in its cultural context along its musicological context.