Alvin Lucier and His Process Art
As a pioneer in experimental music, Alvin Lucier composed many though-provoking contemporary music such as “I am sitting in a room” and “Exploration of the House.” This short essay attempts to conclude my personal listening experience and interpret both pieces from the perspective of process art.
Process art is defined as “the process of making art rather than any predetermined composition or plan) and the concepts of change and transience” by the Guggenheim museum, which is an idea articulated through both works. For example, “I am sitting in a room” is a speech recorded by Lucier that has been repeated numerous times until his voice has become blurry and gradually replaced by the sound of sonic frequencies.
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First we hear beautiful traditional classical music, then the fragment is recorded and sent back to the hall and re-recorded, which generates an amplifying sound effect. This makes the orchestra sound like organs playing for a mass in a church. When the recordings are replayed and repeated, the music become percussive echoes, and looping echoes soon outstand the meaningful score, leaving resonant frequencies physically fill the space. When one fragment ends in frequencies, another fragment launches with clear notes. In this piece, the fading of meaning and reappearance of it reminds of me ocean waves. A wave rises high as a wall so that we can see water in an identifiable form, just like we can understand sound through scores; as the wave hits the shore, breaks and disappears, ripples and bubbles become evidences of the wave’s existence, just like we can tell that music once was there through the frequencies. When the music lost its meaning, the audience subjectivity also vanishes. Personal preference over music genre no longer exists, all we share is the same space and same frequencies translated through air and the material that reflected the …show more content…
He does not create scores with orthodox musical methods and his music can be unpleasant or even irritating to some; yet by using a technological process, he reveals a naturally occurring acoustic phenomena and demonstrates it an unforgettable physical form. In the simplest way one could imagine (play-record-play-re-record-repeat), Lucier successfully guides the audience to pay attention to listening itself, to sound itself, to the space that we stand in, to the effect that the surrounding environment may have upon us. Other composers may deliver emotions or opinions through their works, but Lucier manages to erase all these subjective judgements, triggers a self-reflecting thinking process and initiate a borderless experience that all audience shared
Writer and composer, Aaron Copland, in his book, “How We Listen,” divides listening into three planes: the sensuous, the expressive and the sheerly musical. Copland argues throughout the work that “[listeners] can deepen [their] understanding of music only by being a more conscious and aware listener.” (Copland, 15) Copland’s strategy of breaking the text up with the three planes of listening helps the reader understand his message in a more complete way.
I now realise that the Arts, including music, creates opportunities to engage, inspire and enrich our lives. Music making and responding can challenge, provoke responses and enrich our knowledge and understanding of ourselves, our communities and the world.
The great and respected Aaron Copland was an American composer known for his ballad scores. In his essay, “How We Listen To Music” Copland wanted avid music listeners to realize that you can not just be dazed. His mind had sorted out three planes of listening for us: the sensuous plane, the expressive plane, and the sheerly musical plane. He simply defined each plane, illustrating it, and then contrasts between the three. With this people will be a cautious of their music surroundings.
Often music is consisted not only by sounds made from musical instruments, but also by voice and verbal messages. The structure of the voice, or as Roland Barthes describes it ‘the grain of voice’ is the element in a certain piece of music which is responsible for creating the emotions when listening. The grain and the lyrics make the signified and carry out the message. The vocal part of music is formed of words, text, which communicate and make the representation and expression of what it is sung - talked about. According to Barthes the emotive modes of the voice and the changes of the tones from low to high is what delivers the final message and makes us feel the music. (Barthes, R. 1977 [1972]).
Without the human intention, perception, and interpretation of sound, then the existence of music would be imaginary. Music includes talking words in a way that the person creates a sound that is made with the intention of being music (Deutsch, Diana 10-13, Justus & Timothy., 33-40). Besides, people can perceive silence and sound and put them together so as to call the outcome music. In Bakan’s fourth proposition, he identifies the approach as the Human Intention and Perception (HIP) approach (Resnicow, Joel E., 10-22). In other words, the proposition tries to suggest that music is inseparable from the makers; or more specifically the people who perceive and experience it. Bakan gives numerous examples to show that music is a product of human intention and perception. This paper conducts research and gives appropriate examples to show that music is only identified as music if the person is making it has the intention for their words to be music.
Then, it comes out of nowhere. The biggest climax, suddenly brought on like a wave crashing against a cliff’s edge. The oboe melody recurs again, this time less sorrowful than inviting. Come back, it sings. And the flute comes skipping over the sound, the sun rising from behind black clouds. But the melody it plays sounds out of place, lower than and not as bright as what it could be. My fingers twitch, following the flute countermelody as if I were up there playing with them—as I should be.
He blinks; he has to swallow back tears. The parlor looks the same as it always has: two cribs beneath two Latin crosses, dust floating in the open mouth of the stove, a dozen layers of paint peeling off the baseboards. A needlepoint of Frau Elena’s snowy Alsatian village above the sink. Yet now there is music. As if, inside Werner’s head, an infinitesimal orchestra has stirred to life”(33).
Music’s power is usually described as being able to instill an emotion in its listeners. But music comes to mean even more in The Power of One. It represents someone’s spirit - Doc’s. The music he creates is a metonym for his thoughts and inner spirit. Music, especially Doc’s piano, is a physical representation of his life and spirit, revealing music to be the force that Doc uses to communicate and connect with the rest of the world.
After this continued for a little while, a sort of twirling sound began to arise and then fall back into the same melody that was at the beginning of the movement but this time it had sounds almost like footsteps along with the beat. Again, something evil seems to arise and has a dark feeling to it and then it slowly fades out, almost like it’s waiting for something to happen. Then you begin to hear a soft tip toeing for a little while as it becomes louder and louder and everyone in the orchestra starts to play in a monophony, which is the same notes at the same time. Then the chasing sounds begin along with the same melody that was at the beginning of the movement. It starts to get faster and faster and you begin to hear horns as the composition
Producing such a diverse selection of musicians, Rubin is a listener before he is an engineer; refusing to work in an office setup he uses his historical L.A home to meet with musicians. Rubin believes that music isn’t made behind a work desk or over the phone; music must first be experienced before it is produced. It can therefore be assumed that Rubin’s successful career is due to underlining appreciation for the music he is producing. He doesn’t know much about music, but he knows what works and this pro-found style of engineering through listening rather than through use of techniques has built an almost instantly recognizable personal style that can be heard on each record he has worked on.
“Art, all art, not just painting, is a foreign city, and we deceive ourselves when we think it familiar,” (4) is a quote from Jeanette Winterson “Art Objects”, where she first experience a different perception of art. This essay encompasses a first encounter in appreciating all art in different ways, leading to a basic understanding of three different planes mentioned in Aaron Copland’s “How We Listen.” Copland narrows down how to perceive art, specifically music, through three different planes: sensuous, expressive, and sheerly musical. He explains the sensuous plane as the first level of perceiving music, through the basic senses (seeing, hearing, touching, etc.) and develops into the expressive plane, which is the emotional content of the
Chris Kallmyer works with sound and space in exploring music through the human senses. This meaning he approaches music through taste, touch, and process using everyday objects. His works is different from traditional exhibitions of art. He likes to have the audience work with creating the art (audience and performer relationship) and many of installations explore sound and listening. According to Kallmyer, there is a creative source for the work he does. He likes to look at objects in different ways. For example, one of this projects was in an art museum where
Most fascinating thought about listening to all contemporary pieces, especially William Kraft’s compositions, is attitude.
Thesis: Music is a unique form of sound powerful enough to manipulate mood, feelings, and cognition.
Discoveries can lead to new understandings and renewed perceptions of ourselves and others. Composers utilize the impactful discoveries of characters to act as catalysts for the audience to discover, that is that new considerations of the human condition & mankind can be derived