Sonic Revelations, Sonic Revolutions

Of all the music that we have listened to in class thus far, I can say, without any doubt, that Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet affected me the most.  I confess that I had very low expectations going into this piece.  When professor Alegant said in class that it was over an hour and used a tape loop of a tramp singing, I braced myself for the worst.  After listening to Come Out and I am sitting in a room, both of which I did enjoy, for the record, I was tired of lengthy, experimental pieces involving the musicality of the human voice.  I was scared it would simply reiterate this idea with some sort of twist.  The thought that Bryars had selfishly not given back to the Tramp also occurred to me.
When I listened to the piece it completely blew me away. The second movement had the deepest effect on me.  It had that great quality of being overwhelmingly sad and yet not depressing.  It made me feel sad for the tramp and for society in general, not for myself.  After listening to the piece, I cannot believe that it was conceived from selfishness, vanity, or sarcasm. I think that the creator put real feeling and emotion into this piece. The orchestrations did not mock or patronize the tramp, they sympathized with him.
Someone in class said that music like this captured a piece of the soul.  I don’t think it was only the tramp’s soul.  I have no experience in musical composition, but I do have experience in the visual arts, and I think it is extremely difficult to show that much of yourself in a work of art.  I believe that Bryars was being completely honest in this work.  For me, this music is a pure expression of human sadness, not sarcasm, and not self-indulgence.

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