In my blog I wanted to clarify my feelings about Niblock’s Kontradictionaries and the statement I made about it in class on Monday. In class I said something along the lines of, “I could only appreciate Kontradictionaries on an intellectual level, and not on an emotional level.” I take Kontradictionaries as something of an essay on overtones. I was inexperienced in overtones coming into class on Monday, so listening to Kontradictionaries opened my ears to things I had never heard before. Compared to Stimmung, the Niblock Piece demonstrated overtones in a much more explicit fashion. As I said before, it was a musical essay, an experiment, on overtones. When I listened to Kontradictionaries, it provoked an intellectual response in me, an enlightenment, one might say. Stimmung produced a more emotional response in me because it put the overtones Kontradictionaries had experimented with to a more emotionally artistic purpose. In that way, I could, as I said in class, listen to Stimmung simply for the joy and pleasure of listening to it, because emotion never gets old; it never exhausts itself. You can’t get tired of feeling an emotion like you can get tired of having an intellectual idea stated. I couldn’t listen to Kontradictionaries again, simply for the joy of listening to it, because its potential to enlighten is spent. You can’t be enlightened about something twice. So, to summarize and further clarify my thoughts, Kontradictionaries was intellectual art, which, for me at least, has limited appeal, and Stimmung was emotional art, which is timeless.
This piece was extremely intriguing. The initial back-story about the “cave-people” was terrifically engaging and it gave a much needed context for the music.
Initially, the preparation, skill and work that went into this was enough to engender my respect and admiration for the music and for the performers. I truly can appreciate hard work and this recording truly exemplified that.
The music itself was a little off-putting at first, just meaningless sounds and syllables coming from a barbershop quartet. But as the recording progressed i found myself listening on bot a meticulous academic leave and a deeper more instinctual level. Every time i heard an overtone, or thought I heard an overtone, my interest was peaked and the intellectual side of my brain tried to pick it apart. This also happened when i heard the straight-up ninth chord. I began to think of all the jazz tunes i know that utilize ninth chords and what whole-tone scale would work over them. Eventually I let my mind settle and began feeling the music more. I have a great love for religious and liturgical musics. This helped me enjoy the monk-like droning of he singers. As a frequent music listener, I rarely find myself listening on both an academic level and an instinctual level. I am either analyzing or grooving. This piece, however, forced me to do both, which was a truly enjoyable experience.
Another aspect of music that i have a hard time finding in many recordings is humor. Music should be a joyous think and humor is a part of that. There is a country artist named Brad Paisley who I enjoy. In fact, he is the only popular country artist that i enjoy. Other than his blazing guitar chops and songwriting prowess, he is funny. Most of his songs are dotted with humor. For example, in his song Ticks, he sings, “I’d like to see you out in the moonlight; I’d like to kiss you, way out in the sticks; I’d like to walk you through a field of wild flowers; And I’d like to check you for ticks.” Hilarious. That humor makes the songs just a little better. That playful musicality was obviously present in Stimmung. The bravery for a composer to put humor in a major piece is wonderful to hear. The “Monday”s and “Thursday”s add a terrific bit of levity in such a heavy piece.
Overall, I truly enjoyed this work. I lived listening to it and this weekend I hope t get through the whole thing.
I decided to do my blog this week in Stockhausen Stimmung. I will not lie and say that I listened to the complete piece multiple times. Instead I listened to random sections of it, and then, mostly because of chance, I decided to centre in the segments 26 to 28.
These segments show really varied styles. Not only they have repetitions and magic words but they also include several things I found really interesting. The first of these takes place in the segment 26 at 0:48 where, for around 5 seconds there is a deep laugh. I thought this was interesting, but somehow unbalancing. I think this presented a type of element of surprise. Even when this segment escalates into that point, as I wasn’t expecting it at all and, for the first couple of times I heard this, it still kept on surprising me a little.
I think that segment 27 was the least interesting of those I focused on. I think it was just like a low point before segment 28, which is, by much, my favourite. The rhythm presented in 27 spills into segment 28. And until 0:45, there is no mayor change in the sound. At 0:45, this changes as a declamatory voice is introduced. One of the longer poems of Stimmung is located in this part.
When I first listened to this poem, I was astonished. It literally got me to sit there with my mouth open staring to the computer. Until 2:23, the voice is accompanied with the rest of the voices following the same pattern they had at the beginning. At this point everything stops for 6 whole seconds, after this the voice says a couple of lines unaccompanied, and then the voices follow. This was amazing, I heard it again and again, and again. There was something incredible about it. The voice was really low, making changes in the intonation, and making it somehow musical.
After hearing it a couple of times I started to listen to the lyrics of this, using my very poor knowledge of German to try to figure out what they were saying. I failed miserably and only achieved to pick up some random phrases and lines, enough to make me more curious. Then I remember what I had read in the background information, about the poems being directly erotic, and then I got even more curious, so I looked for the lyrics online:
(www.hyperion-records.co.uk/notes/66115-B.pdf).
If you haven’t done so, I would recommend you to read them, they are under sections 32, and then another large poem in section 12. After reading this, the way I perceived the poem, and the changes in intonation was highly increased. I look quite badly for the rest of the poems, but I couldn’t find them. It was amazing. The poem is direct, but in context it makes complete sense. You can see that the silences are set in a perfect spot.
I loved this, I didn’t get anxious or any of the other physical reactions I usually have with what we listen in class. It was great.
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