Listening Responses

WEEK 5:

One of the listening pieces which struck me the most was Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring."  More than being struck by it, there is a particular aspect that I had a hard time getting past.  Maybe I am reading a bit too much into it, however, I want to share my thoughts in this response.

The title of this indicates that the graphical score representation plays a major role in the piece.  The artist of the graphic representation decided to add an animated aspect to the timeframe of the score.  As each note is hit, the circles/rectangles (which are originally filled) 'emit' out their contents to denote the note being played.  However, when the note is hit, the animation I find to be very counterintuitive to its 'emitted' sound.  The interior fill of the note is animated to go into the next played note.

I do not think that this is a good way to represent Stravinsky's work as this depiction seems to show that every sound is being built off the same/original notes.  Although, in a sense, this is a way to think of sound synthesis, I do not see this as a fitting for an instrumental piece like Stravinsky.  In a sense, the pieces are connected due to melodies and chords, though I think that this animation goes beyond the inherent connection.


WEEK 6:

In class last week, we had an interesting discussion about the relatively "new" comeback, as there was a point in time (even as late as the 90s) where computational synthesis was not powerful enough for the sounds to be as the artists had intended.

However, I think it is also important to show the current similarities between the sounds of today's electronic music, and that of decades ago.  For example, one of the pieces we had as listening for this week was a piece by Iannis Xenakis.

For those unfamiliar with this piece, I recommend listening to it first.  Then, listen to this more modern piece: deadmau5's Aural Psynapse.  Though the two pieces certainly have a different underlying feel, I think that there are several aspects within them that are quite similar.  Both contain several instances of dry, somewhat static tones.  In Xenakis' piece, these notes comprise the vast majority of the score.  However, the deadmau5 piece takes this tone and intertwines with the themes of more "modern" applications.