Sonic Revelations, Sonic Revolutions

Listening to Uaxuctum for the first time I saw 2001: A Space Odyssey. I was too young to appreciate the film, but old enough to not be easily frightened by a movie.  That said, I remember being terrified during the first monolith scenes. There was something dark and inscrutable about the artifact that was amplified by Ligeti’s Requiem to frightening proportions. That same presence seemed to crystallize itself in Uaxuctum.  The latter half of the movement in particular used this weird sound, almost like a synthesized scream or cry, which represented its prophetic character. Contrary to my initial reaction to the monolith, I found Uaxuctum to be beautiful.  Knowing that it represents a Mayan city that destroyed itself, I find a sort of natural beauty in this piece, as if it represented a cycle of death and rebirth.  I get a similar feeling listening Ko-Tha, another of Scelsi’s pieces, which, conveniently, deals with Shiva.

It is, as Professor Alegant noted, truely terrifying at times.  I really enjoyed the surreal mixing of ominous syllables and tone in the voice with more longing strains, as well as very effectively placed percussion and brass. It’s the kind of piece that keeps building, but at no point comes to an ultimate climax; tension is retained throughout. What really got me was actually the breathing noise at the very beginning – as I drew in my timeline, I got the immediate impression of a gas mask, and a horrifying but somehow mysterious scene. The piece opens up into distinct sections for me: these sections are defined by a certain instrument and kind of tone. In the beginning, it is the breathing; next, the male voice, with a dark tone.  Later, the brass would define a section.  Outlining this piece was very hard for me – As you saw, I started out with noted times, and then basically just drew what i felt I was hearing in each section.  Although it seemed to work at the time, I don’t think that this was the most effective way of going about it – Looking back on the timeline, it was at the very least hard to follow. I should have been more specific…
But at any rate, I really enjoyed/was disturbed by this piece.

 A lot of the music we’ve been listening to recently, such as Stimmung and Scelsi, has been described as primordial. This minimalist and experimental style of music challenged, once again, my perception of the difference between music and sound or noise. On the other hand, we also listened to the Anonymous 4’s wrenchingly beautiful interpretation of a Medieval love song. The contrast between, say, Scelsi and the Montpellier Codex, is stark in many respects, and I wanted to explore further the differences that lay in music that aims to sound ancient, and music that ancient society actually produced. (Doubtless there are songs that range from further back than the Medieval times, but I will use the Anonymous 4’s song for comparison here.)        What got me thinking about this was Alex Ross’s article “The Messenger: Giacinto Scelsi Discovered a World in One Note,” in which he glorifies Scelsi and his a-tonal compositions. Ross expresses his admiration for the music by elevating it and its composer to deified heights: “… the Tone is all-powerful once more.” “… considered himself a ‘messenger’ or ‘medium,’ and ” …a cult figure among younger composers: he makes the eternal new.” I agree with Ross on the counts that Scelsi’s music is unique and interesting. The idea of the primordial, for me, comes from the fact that a multitude of textures and sounds rise out of just one note, almost like the big bang theory, or any other creation idea. The Medieval song, on the other hand, has none of the tense or anxious quality of Scelsi, or for the matter Stimmung’s, work. The singers worked hard to perfect a “pure” style of singing, without any dips or vibrato in their tone. Contrary to the generally tune-less Scelsi, “Puisque bele dame m’eime” is all about arching melody.  But when does melody and “melody formed from noise,” as Ross describes Scelsi’s music, begin to differentiate? I think that the Medieval composers were focused on creating pleasant music that would entertain a court, as a love song would. Abstract, minimalist music would probably be the very last thing those people were looking for. Scelsi and Stimmung’s music, on the other hand, is narrative in the sense that they are trying to convey stories in ways that simultaneously were completely new and different, but also universal at the core.