Noise or silence

In order to better understand the following post, I highly suggest you watch this video in its entirety:

4’33” is a famous piece by John Cage which explores the music we never really pay attention to. It was a philosophical stand-point that brought the argument of “what is music?” to fruition.

The piece is comprised of three movements labeled “tacet” (do not play).

The video above shows a connecting point between the representation and reality. Hyperreality is when we become unable to tell the difference between an imitation of reality and reality itself.

One of the easiest examples to understand is video games. Video games have become so advanced graphically. In my personal experience, if I play a video game long enough, I begin to see the gameplay behind my eyelids. In that way, the game became my own reality.

In 4’33”, the piece is comprised of what seems like silence. However, the point the composer is trying to make is that we don’t notice the sounds/”ambient noise” that naturally occur around us. The reality of our everyday ambient noise becomes a work of art.

Performances of 4’33” force the audience to listen to the coughs, cell phone texts, birds, traffic, etc. we never notice and consider it “music.” Whether or not you go along with the idea is up to your interpretation.

The controversial piece has spurred many iterations, often in parody. Here are some of my favorites:

If you would like to learn more about John Cage’s philosophy behind 4’33”:

 

The Delivery of Music

Gavin Bryars based the piece The Sinking of the Titanic on a hymn that was played by a string quartet as the ship sank. He played around with the hymn created a kind of ambient atmosphere.

In the following performance, the Aventa Ensemble decided to perform the piece in an indoor pool (Vancouver Aquatic Centre) with the audience in the pool.

Delivery is a term that comes from J.E. Porter’s theory of delivery; it was a term from Ancient Greek rhetoric, but it still applies to today. It is comprised of five aspects of how new media is “delivered” today: accessibility, distribution, identity, interaction and economics. If you would like to read more about this theory, please see here.

In The Sinking of the Titanic, there are two main aspects to consider: accessibility and distribution.

Music isn’t necessarily the most accessible form of media online. Music is meant to be seen live. Music cannot be comprehensively experienced unless it’s live. Recordings and videos lose sound quality and actual vibration. Orchestras like the Berlin Philharmonic could not be heard unless you bought a plane ticket and were actually in Berlin.

With the Internet, it has made music more accessible. Music can be heard online while the live performance is going on or even shortly thereafter. The Berlin Philharmonic even offers an online service (Digital Concert Hall) that serves this purpose.

The Sinking of the Titanic achieves this, however one part to consider is that you are most definitely not getting the same experience as the audience (the primary audience) in that pool. Not only because of the lost vibrations, but also because of the acoustics of the room and the complete “surround sound” of the musicians playing all around you.

Distribution of music has a somewhat similar problem. There is so much music out there that it makes it difficult to know everything that is available. The Internet makes it much easier to make their music known through websites like SoundCloud or Spotify that allow users to listen to music for free.

The Sinking of the Titanic is not a very popular piece. It is typically performed by new music ensembles or other contemporary music ensembles. If this piece wasn’t available to listen to online, it may not be as well known. It’s not like a piece by Mozart or Bach that is being distributed and utilized in other forms of media.

 

Let’s start at the beginning

I am a classical musician myself. Following my brother’s example, I began playing the flute at eight years old. After six years of that, I didn’t like having to fight for opportunities all the time due to playing the dime-a-dozen flute.

So, I decided to switch to the French horn and I’ve been in love with the instrument ever since. I started to get unique opportunities, beginning with getting into an arts high school and leading me to visit the UK numerous times on orchestra tours among other experiences.

At my arts high school, my orchestra conductor created very interesting programs. He was definitely unafraid of introducing musicians to some different and “out there” repertoire. Contemporary classical music grabbed my interest in his orchestra and I’ve continued to find an interest in what’s often called “new music.”

This is also the term I prefer because “contemporary classical music” always sounds like an oxymoron to me. (How can something be both a classic and new and modern?)

Some of my favorite new music pieces use today’s technology in music of yesteryear. Such examples can be amps/pickups, laptops and computer software, unconventional objects and so on.

I plan to use this blog to discuss some of the new technological aspects of new music and examine their effectiveness to today’s audiences.