Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Listening Assignment (2/1)


Reviewed by: Emily Cesarini

Terry Riley “In C”
  • The beginning of this piece starts off with this repetitive dinging noise with string instruments playing over top it. It was infuriating and I did not enjoy it, I felt as if the piece would never come to an end. After listening for a few minutes more instruments began to be layered into the piece and it became slightly more bearable but I could not appreciate there sounds much as the dinging noise was still continuously present and directed most of my attention.

John Chowning “Stria”
  • This is a very eerie song as it has a lot of drawn out notes that seem to just carry on into each other without much distinction between them. As the music continues it begins to get louder almost piercing and at one point it reminded me of an organ playing at church. I usual associate the sounds produced from organs as being rather ominous and believe that the deeper or more drawn out the notes are, such as in this piece, the more it fades into the background and fits into a horror flick scene. By far the best piece out of this selection to listen to.

Steve Reich “Come Out”
  • Again the extremely repetitive nature of this piece drove me mad and there was no way I could subject myself to listening to the piece in its entirety. So when I skipped to the 6 minute mark I was taken aback that the same repeated line continued to be spoken the only difference being the slight echo now given to it. Overall, I would not subject my worst enemies to this.  

Iannis Xenakis “Concret PH”

  • This piece begins with what sounds like millions of pieces of glass falling and landing on each other and then adds some other clanking noises sounding like utensils are being run over the glass. Overall, this was an interesting piece and made me think about what everyday objects could make the noises produced.

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