Listening Assignment: Subotnick, Reich, Reily

For this week’s assignment, I familiarized myself with three pieces. The first was Steve Reich’s “Six Marimbas” (1986), performed at the University of Kentucky’s Singletary Center for the Arts in 2008. The video of the performance appeared in two parts on YouTube, and being able to watch the musicians on stage made for a more interesting experience. The instruments were paired back-to-back, and viewed from the end, created a visual puzzle. The six marimbas were played by musicians striking notes in unison for the most part, with one leading the melody for a time, and passing the melodic thread on to another. Not being a fan of minimalist music, I was surprised to find the sounds to have a softness, the mellowness of wood, with a vaguely Latin beat. There was enough melody and structure to be pleasing, and a planned monotony that reminded me of the whimsical clockworks in a medieval European village, I thought perhaps work for an animation soundtrack.

The second piece was Terry Riley's “In C” from a 2006 performance of 124 musicians. Hitting a constant 8^th note in C, it had a steady four count beat with an intermittent sound like a horn. The impression this piece left me with was of abstracted traffic noise as heard from the window of a high rise in New York City. After listening for a while, there was a warbling effect. Not being a musician, I’m not sure what this would be called.

The third piece was Morton Subotnick’s work in the remix "Mandolin/Acid Bassline" from Sound Unbound. This work contained ethnic music, possibly Middle Eastern, and German spoken word passages, and well as phrases about Death. I thought it seemed to be a reflection a mental landscape, of the ebb and flow of Consciousness, and what is sometimes called the “monkey mind” by Buddhists, a restlessness which is difficult to tame. Even though I can appreciate these explorations, much like aural paintings, in researching Subotnick, I came across the work of his son Steven. He is an animator who sometimes works on projects with his father. I can imagine that his character Hairyman might be a being who hears those kind of voices in his head. Just a thought. Guess I was right about the animation soundtrack idea...