#mus 105

[jeff-xr]

Reading Set 2: Sound Studies Reader Ch. 5 - The Three Listening Modes - Chion

I like how Chion explored how we categorize sound through causal listening via indices. It makes sense that our brains can get a general sense of a sound and come up with a category that likely matches the source based on other sounds we have heard before. These different categories might be organized and separated spatially in the brain and it would be neat to explore how this comes to be and how our brain chooses to relate sounds to one another.

From hearing about acousmatic music, it does not surprise me that Schaefer has coined the term reduced listening. I had not thought of the specific ways of describing sounds before but it does make sense to separate the cause or perceived cause of a sound from the sound itself. This is critical not only for objective listening, but for establishing a language to discuss sound.

I somewhat disagree when he says that the descriptive inventory of a sound cannot be compiled in a single hearing. It might be very difficult, but I think it is certainly possible to get a solid description of a sound from one listening. It may not be as detailed or as accurate as the inventory after listening to a recorded sound 20 times but certainly not impossible. I also think that after listening to something repeatedly, a sense of objectivity is lost and sounds (and definitely songs) can grow on you. Conversely, they could also get more annoying. With this in mind I think there is something important about the first impression of a sound. I also think that an accurate descriptive inventory could be made through reduced listening to a live professional musician for example, playing a note in the same space repeatedly and instructed to maintain the same timbre, loudness, time, etc. But this is probably quibbling with Chion and Schaefer’s point and not so relevant to the main thesis. 

[jeff-xr]

Reading Set 2: The Sound Studies Reader Ch. 1 - Sterne

In this chapter, Sterne takes on the daunting task of defining sound studies. From my limited but growing contextual knowledge I think he did a good job. He mentions the extremely varied backgrounds that “sound students” come from as is to be expected in such an interdisciplinary field. 

One point that he hit on was how sound studies and sound students are conscious of their own historicity and work within the context of their core concepts and objects. In reading these passages I see the importance of this and how difficult it is to innovate without have a solid grasp of the background knowledge. I remember when I was young I put pencils into our piano and made effectively a prepared piano (while fearing I would be yelled at by my mom). I did not know until recently that prepared pianos were around, especially for such a long time with such a storied and now venerated history. I also made a max patch for a class project during undergrad relying on “random” numbers to determine what notes, chords, and rhythms would be played. I had no concept of aleatoric music at the time so could not really say more than “I made a neat patch check it out” without the context. Historical context as Sterne says is important so as to not reinvent the wheel and to expand ones views on what is possible, fostering innovation. It is also important for communicating to other students within the field and collaborating.

Through reading this passage I got a sense of Sterne’s excitement for the subject matter. It also got me excited to see where I fit into the picture as a sound student. 

Edit: after class discussion had a lot to think about. One thing was the audiovisual litany. When I was first reading this, I was confused as to why it was included. Through reading through this litany I can think of cases for every bullet point that would make it not true. 

[jeff-xr]

Reading Set 2: A walk of art: the potential of the sound walk as practice in cultural geography - Butler

I think this article brought up a lot of very cool possibilities for walking sound art. The experience of walking while listening to something brought to mind augmented reality and VR devices. It might be cool to have an aural HUD as opposed to a visual one. You could have a headset which based on your location, added sounds to what you are hearing providing additional information. The examples given in this article are all tied to a pre-determined place, whether it is an installation or a planned route, but today I think a lot could be done incorporating GPS and a mobile device utilizing the internet as Butler hinted at towards the end of the article. A microphone array could also be incorporated into this and the live audio signals from the current environment could be processed in some way to further add information or create an interesting experience while also recording the environment for others to experience in the future. If there were a number of these devices they could even communicate with one another. For example, if there is a place where multiple recordings have been made, whenever a device walks near this environment, it could play some version of the previous recordings, enriching the experience for the person that is there and providing a more “full” sense of the place. Recordings that people find more interesting could be given precedent over other recordings to provide the most useful information as determined by crowd-sourcing.

I really liked the sound walk that was described in this article entitled Linked by Graeme Miller. It draws a stark contrast between the past history of the M11 with the present, all within a social context addressing the controversy surrounding the construction of the road. Experiencing that piece must be even  more intense for those people that lived there and were displaced. I can only imagine how surreal it would be to be in the same place where you had lived for years, hearing the sounds from that time, but at the same time being accosted by the sights and sounds of cars driving by. It made me think of a man-made lake near my house that is situated over what used to be a town. I always wondered what was under the surface there and what that town was like. I think surreal places like this offer a unique opportunity to create compelling art.  

An excerpt that struck me was: “The Walkman has been described as the ultimate object of contemporary nomadism”. I wondered why the author discussed this and not the mp3 player/iPod as these were around at that time and he mentions them later. I would argue that mp3 players and now smart phones have surpassed this as the new ultimate object of contemporary nomadism as any type of audio file can be streamed over the internet on a whim to many locations. Many people listen to not only music, but audiobooks and podcasts and one can be listening to their own personal audio selections non-stop from the beginning of the day to the end if they so choose. 

[jeff-xr]

Reading Set 2: Computer Testing - Patton

Some quick thoughts: It was funny that the first computer bug was a literal bug. It was surprising that “specification” is the leading cause of bugs accounting for over 50%. Coming from an ecology background, it struck me that searching for software bugs is akin to sampling an ecosystem to find species. The graph in the book that had the point of optimal amount of testing is similar to the graphs they use to extrapolate species richness/abundance/accumulation

From wikipedia: “the species discovery curve ... is a graph recording the cumulative number of species of living things recorded in a particular environment as a function of the cumulative effort expended searching for them (usually measured in person-hours).”  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Species_discovery_curve

It would be cool to use these functions to estimate the number of bugs remaining in a software program, especially because these functions are used to estimate the number of real bugs in the real world. 

[itsalwaysdennyinflipadelphi-blog]

(TL:DR At least watch and listen to the video)

In my MUS 105 Understanding Music Class, we have 3 major assignments. The first assignment is as follows in which we were given the choice to analyze any modern contemporary piece of music. I am rarely sated by my writing compositions as I feel as I never really do justice in responding to topics. Especially when you write about something as your personal interpretation of a song that you feel speaks to you, how can anyone put their exact feelings into words?

Anyways, I wrote a 3 page paper (as instructed) on "Lime Tree" by Bright Eyes as it was the song I felt most emotionally involved with at the time. Despite my lack of confidence in my own works, I feel I did a pretty great job as my Brofessor's judgment on my paper can provide proof for that (I got a 5 on it as he tells the class that he rarely gives that grade unless he truly feels that the writer has poured effort and content into his/her paper). Sure it's pretentious to boast about my own work, but I believe sometimes you just have to be take pride and be proud of your accomplishments. This way, life just seems a lot brighter. Be positive.

The following is an unedited copy of my paper as it was presented in hard-copy with any lingering grammar mistakes that I did not bother to correct. I get that many of you will skip over my paper, skim it, or ignore it, and I am fine with it. I would not read something as blocky and long as this. (Fuck you :D):

“Lime Tree”

The closing track to the ’07 album Cassadaga by Conor Oberst’s group Bright Eyes is a very a calm song with short lengths of tension. Oberst’s praise as a songwriter has often been attributed to his diction and lyrical direction rather than his singing as his voice may be seen as an acquired taste. In his past discography and history as a musician, he has been known to be politically outspoken against the Bush administration, to be experimental in how he approached music both electronically and acoustically, but on his latest effort, he wanted to pursue something spiritual and universally meaningful. This was the whole underlying theme of this album, and I feel that it was exemplified best in this song by method of music and lyrics. It is a song with mainly a minimalist feel, featuring a main vocal lead, sparing use of female backup, a single acoustic guitar, a synthesizer, and use of strings.

Oberst’s voice in this song is characterized as very clear as he enunciates every word clearly, but without force. The vocal tracks are the most integral and focal part of the song as they are cranked up to stand out. There is a use of heavy reverb in his voice and in the female voices which is used to create a spatial feel as if you are in a giant hollow room with Oberst’s performing group playing this song before you. His guitar playing plays quiet broken chords with a simple pattern consisting of scratching the strings in downward strokes with resonating root notes played on the up-beat. It continues to be like this throughout the song with the exception of minimal fills that consist of single notes. The guitar’s role isn’t as prominent as it would be on any other rock song, but this type of playing serves its purpose to provide a sort of guideline for the vocals and strings to overlay as there are no percussion instruments to offer a sort of loud raucous. This is not what the track is about.

There is a ghostly feel to this track. It is ethereal and surreal. The melody is straightforward, but the in and coming strings tell you otherwise, taking you from your comfortable room of white light and into a dark mysterious forest. This sensation is pleasant, but sends chills up your spine. There is uncertainty and tragedy within his lyrics. “I keep floating down the river, but the ocean never comes/ since the operation I heard you’re breathing just for one.” The first stanza is a metaphor for eternal waiting and loss of life. The narrator is lying in shallow waters, barely conscious, just reflecting on recent events that have been immense in their own ways, and how they have affected him. His eyes are closed and he’s missing the world, trying to understand it and its inhabitants. “Don’t be so amazing, or I’ll miss you too much.” But there is too much to be missed, and hence the song is filled with interior conflict.

 “Lime Tree” is full of that humanly sentiment of feeling lost or being directionless. Yet it is presented in a comfortable way, telling us all that it is perfectly natural to be feeling this way. The insecure and uncertain theme of this song recurs often with such lines as, “Everything gets smaller now the further that I go/ towards the mouth and the reunion of the Known and the Unknown/ Consider yourself lucky if you think of it as home/ You can move mountains with your misery if you don't.” This part elucidates and expands on the idea of comfort. You are lucky if you familiarize and gain a sort of acceptance with spiritual mysteries. However, if you fail to acknowledge the conditioning of spiritualism, you will amount a feeling of despair and forlorn cause.

My favorite lines of the piece seem to epitomize the notion of seeking truth with its comprehensible metaphor. “Under the leaves of that old Lime Tree I stood examining the fruit/ Some were ripe and some were rotten, I felt nauseous with the truth/ There will never be a time more opportune.” There is something about the way that he sings it, the quick bouncing strings beneath, hesitant about settling on a single note, and recurring vocal melody that makes these lines significant. Between the good and the bad, the realm where all things exist harmoniously, or maybe another idea altogether can be your one chance to witness something amazing.

The last stanza of the piece can sum up the songwriter’s response to the song’s thesis which is escape from it all. There is a sense of bliss that he thinks he might have found.  “So pleased with a daydream that now living is no good/ I took off my shoes and walked into the woods/ I felt lost and found with every step I took.” I can’t draw a single refined conclusion from all of this and I think this is because of how the song is composed. Strings create a graceful flow throughout the song, but there are times where I feel that they are deceitful when they seem to crescendo at key points with the female backup group, which are reminiscent of sirens, make me feel even more lost when I might think that I have found where I am. As a result, this ending leaves me back to square one, but I don’t know if I should be pleased with where this composition took me. I must ask myself if removing my shoes and walking into the woods suggests freedom with a cost. Oberst loves to juxtapose ideas in his lyrics, creating dichotomy that sustains the feeling of philosophical truth. Whether it is the known and the unknown, or to feel lost and found with every step that is taken, I do adore this song for making me think. For me, I think insightful art includes those that make you naturally reflect on the meaning as a whole after you’ve dissected every pedantic significant detail that make up what it is that affects you.