Sonic Revelations, Sonic Revolutions

I was extremely impressed by the musicality of this piece. I have always associated sirens with fire engines and police cars and such, so they have always held slightly disturbing connotations for me. It was surprisingly easy to suspend my earlier notions of sirens and appreciate them as musical instruments. Everything we do in class pushes my personal definition of music and what is musical further and further from what it was when the semester started. The beauty of the interplay between the sirens is unmistakably musical. Every time one would start to build higher and louder, the excitement and curiosity about when it would peak and where the other sirens would be when the first one peaked kept me super alert and in tune with the music. The way the piece grew higher and louder each time the sirens grew again gave it the feeling of walking uphill. It just mounted higher and higher, and kept going after I thought it was going to start coming down. Just when it started to feel like it was vainly attempting to achieve infinity, it would back off and calm down. Every swell made me think about the fact that no matter how far it goes, it can always go farther. I really enjoyed the thought process that the music inspired.

My ears were ringing intensely towards the end of Ratatat’s set last night, as I had been standing in the front row without earplugs since the first two acts, and even though I could barely hear much besides the music blasting in front of me, I was still overjoyed to see the band come back on for an encore, and to hear the easily recognized intro to the band’s most popular song.

The song: “Seventeen Years” — Ratatat – Seventeen Years

In Seventeen Years, as with many other Ratatat songs, one of the key components is the prevelance of harmonies at varying intervals–in Ratatat’s case–on guitars and synthesizers. The melding in and out of these chords is perfected in a way that Ratatat does well; instead of one guitar playing triads and powerchords, the melodic voices of the instruments are arranged so that more than one voice contributes to the harmony. The result is a fluctuating, moving harmonic series that is perfect when layered on top of a firm but dynamic bassline and the multifaceted percussion that the band employs.

After the concert, as I was wringing out my soaked t-shirt and my ears were screaming for dear life, I started thinking about how much I lit up when Ratatat played my favorite songs, and how I had the same reaction while listening to the John Luther Adams piece we experienced Monday night. The sheer power of a siren, when combined with other sirens’ voices, was so energizing, it made my face light up with excitement.

Ratatat’s songs are completely instrumental (excluding their remix discography). “Triadic Iteration Lattices” is also a completely instrumental piece. With that said, it strikes me to hear how vocal the instrumentation in both of these pieces can be. In “Seventeen Years”, the guitars and organ-synth sing to me. They speak all that needs to be said, lyrics not required. In “Triadic Iteration Lattices”, there are moments where the sirens sound like [shrill] human voices as well. To contrast these two, I’d say the main difference is the emotion summoned by either one: Seventeen Years gets me excited and happy. “T.I.L.” gets me excited and scared shitless.

Perhaps this is because the crooning wails of Ratatat’s electric guitar sounds evoke memories of the past, and, due to the jovial arrangement of the song, reminds me of fonder memories. JLA’s siren screams don’t necessarily evoke memories, but rather, they foster a forboding future with negative images of what sirens can mean: a macabre uncertainty that is fueled with images of air raids, tornadoes, and fires that pervade the psyche until the blaring sirens breach the threshold between visual thought processes and true sonic interpretation and perception. It’s when I’m a few minutes into the JLA piece that I start reaching the sonic Nirvana of sorts that Ratatat offers from the get-go.

So, while it takes some warming up to, I can really appreciate the power and beauty of “Triadic Iteration Lattices”, and I’m glad Ratatat played a show around the same time I experienced this piece; otherwise, I might not have noticed the strange similarities between the two.

Listening to the Triadic Iteration Lattices piece was quite affecting for me.  At the beginning of the piece, I was focused on trying to listen solely to the more musical aspects of the piece and the structure of the piece.  After just a few seconds, however, this task became much  more difficult for me to do because of the significance that air sirens take on in real life.  In just a short period of time I was distracted from my goal of “stepping away” from the music and separating any outside connotation from what was going on in the piece.  The area in which I grew up was not the best sort of neighborhood, and the air sirens brought back many images and memories from my earlier years that made the experience of listening to the pieec inescapably sad for me.  I still was able to pick out certain elements of the piece that were interesting for me, however, such as the way that the sirens kept the same interval relationship to each other when they were descending in pitch, and when the sirens ‘crossed” pitches when one siren would be descending in pitch while another would be rising.  The climax of the piece was fairly intense, but it was interesting that the sirens did not arrive at the exact same pitches, so that the effect was that the “resolution point” of the piece really had no resolution at all, at least in terms of chord structure or pitch.  I guess that that would be difficult to acheive using air sirens in the first place, however.  The piece did provoke emotion in any case, and that is what mde it profound for me, though it did this through ways different than conventional pieces.

Triadic Iteration Lattices is one of those great examples of when music can be found in a seemingly unlikely source.  This past weekend, Barrows had a false fire alarm.  Walking through the building to the outside, I noticed that each alarm hovered around the same pitch, but they were all slightly off when compared to each other, creating a scelsi-esque drone.  Triadic iteration lattices reminded me of this effect.  This is a piece that expands the definition of music, forcing you to consider sources that you would have never considered before.  It may seem unlikely to find music in air sirens, but this piece shows us that we are likely to find music everywhere we look if we try hard enough.

I think half the fun of Triadic Iteration Lattices is the simple fact that this piece is being performed on air sirens. The idea that air sirens could make music had never occurred to me before, and it was fun to hear the ways in which an ordinary object that we traditionally consider to make an obnoxious noise could create arresting music. Someone in class said that you felt like you were on a roller coaster while listening to it, which I did not realize the first time I heard it, but after playing it again yesterday I completely agree with that person’s assessment. The piece teases the listener with the notion of a climax, but every time until the last, final crescendo, the work backs away from the one sound the listener wants to hear: all the air sirens blaring at their full potential at once. This worked really effectively to keep the listener constantly involved in this piece. I think that of all the pieces we’ve listened to so far, this piece was the easiest for me to stay consistently concentrated in the music because of that (the fact that it was only 8:22 also may have helped, however).

I don’t have any associations with air sirens, really, other than the obvious Nazi references. I didn’t know that air sirens were sounded in the event of a tornado until someone brought it up in class. I don’t think they’ve ever sounded air sirens in the event of a hurricane. Because of my lack of personal involvement in the basic sound of the air siren, I do think I was able to enjoy this piece much more. I think that if I had other negatives associations with the noise this piece would be completely different for me.

I just came back from the Ratatat concert and my ears are ringing as though I have a personal overtone concert playing in there. I held off blogging until now because I wanted to write about my experience at the concert, but looking over the other recent blogs, most of them focus on the pieces we listened to during class, which probably makes more sense…so I’ll talk about that first, and if I can, I’ll relate Ratatat back to it in some way. (If you haven’t already, I recommend checking them out, they’re amazing–and even more so live). The piece Four Sirens really moved me, and I’m not sure if that’s despite the fact that it was composed of sirens, or because of it. Although there wasn’t much cause for air raid-style sirens to go off frequently back home (New Jersey is pretty uneventful that way, and the local siren that calls for volunteer police to come into the station sounds like moo-ing), I’ve seen my fair share of movies and such to have that Pavlovian fear when I hear that whining crescendo. It reminds me of tornados, of WWII, of impending danger and the need to flee. Yet, making music out of that fear, taking that which triggers raw and delicate emotions and making art out of it, was such a brash and challenging move. It instilled a lot of admiration and hope in me for what music is capable of. My own emotions were toyed with while I listened to the song. At one point during the song, I was convinced that this could be the soundtrack to that “life flashing past your eyes” moment right before you die. At others, I was in a trance simply lost in the way the tones played off each other and created eerie yet beautiful harmonies. Then, of course, as the pitches escalated, the high screaming overtones were too much to bear. Over all, I felt the song possessed a sort of narrative arc. In the beginning, when the sirens colliding produce a sort of uncomfortable yet pleasing effect, I thought it could be taken as (one aspect of) human nature’s tendency to find a sort of comfort in the misfortunes of others–that is, a sense of relief that the sirens of trouble are not ringing for them. Then, towards the end of the piece as the soprano siren becomes almost unbearable (I covered my ears, I confess), that signified to me that one can never truly escape the unfortunate things that happen in the world, that everyone could be affected equally. Now, bringing it back to Ratatat….in one of their songs, although I don’t remember which one, the guitar shredding away with all of the electronic alterations produced a high and painful overtone that was so clearly an overtone–I’d never experienced it live before, and it was really exciting, in a nerdy kind of way. And now I’m going to go to bed.

So, I had a talk with my teacher today about triadic iteration lattices, and he gave me the score. He has it because his group recorded the CD we heard on Monday. I’d like to take a minute to relay some of the information. First, John Luther Adams is a different composer from the minimalist John Adams–usefull to know who wrote the piece. Second, this piece comes from a larger work entilted “Strange and Sacred Noise.” There are 6 mvts, for various types of percussion instruments. The movement we heard was orriginally concieved to be played on four Timpani Drums. However, I think we can agree the piece would be much less interesting performed on timpani. My teacher thought so too. He asked Adams to reconcieve the movement, and Adams decided on 4 air sirens. I will bring the score tomorrow so everyone can see it.

 I’d like to take a moment to speak to the title of the work: “triadic iteration lattices.” Apart from its ostentatious diction, this title displays another entertaining aspect. It’s ironic. The adjective “triadic” specifically intones a work with definate pitch relationships–Major 3rds, Perfect 5ths; these intervals are necesary parts of any work described as “triadic.” But wait a second…. oh yeah…..    IT’S FOR AIR SIREN PEOPLE!!!!!! THERE ARE NO TRIADS!!!!!!

I think this piece is a perfect example of how titles can be completely misleading as to the meaning and the content of a work. We should all be very wary of titles in the future.

-Matt

It blows my mind away.

I think I’m becoming hysterical(to some people maybe) right now since this is the 7th time I’ve listened to this piece back to back. Its pace,its breath and its screaming still atonish me in such a way that I couldn’t even turn even a little bit of my thought away from it.Like what I have learned in my psychology class:We don’t choose to attend to these sounds, they just draw our minds towards them.

The soundmass was like a group of eyas struggling to fly. Dark clouds blocked the sunlight and it felt like a storm was coming close.They were so determined,so sure that they were going to fly over the trees, over the hills and over the clouds in search of the warm, bright sunlight. But it was so hard. Breathed in,breathed out, the first eyas gave it a try. It flapped its wings and tried to leave the ground. But it failed. However, it started the whole serious of endless trying.They went up, failed, went up again,higher, fell more heavily to the ground. It seemed they were never going to give up. When I was listening to this in class,it felt a little disapointing.  I was waiting and waiting for a time when the sirens just went up, like nothing could ever stop it, to an extreme when not one of us could even hear it. Like the eyas eventually broke through the dark clouds and the sunlight just blinded us. But they didn’t. At around 6:30, they went so close to the border of the clouds, so close that I could even smell the fresh air above the clouds. I wanted to scream with it,  wanted to give it a little more push to make it go beyond that line. However, no matter how hard I tried, it went down again. Like a dream been shattered into pieces. Like a marathon athlete felt down two meters before the finish line. Like the last soldier in an army got shot before he could put the flag of his motherland onto the land they were going to reclaim. He struggled, used his last strength to crawl to that place, but the scene just fade out, and I was left there, speechless.

 I’m still listening to it. Listening to the story what the four sirens are trying to say. Listening to the passion, the spirit and the taste of failure. But the piece is more than this. It blew my mind away and will always blow my mind away whenever I can’t help to press the play button.

There were four sirens, really loud, making music. How is that not awsome. This piece is the best thing, in my opinion, that we have listened to in class so far. After our class last night, I ook some time and though about why I love it and why It is musical to me. The theme of layers kept popping into my head. My appreciation for this piece developed and is manifestedin layers. At the onset, the first layer was the “cool” part. Four sirens blasting out pitches just oozes intrigue and badassery. The first layer of appreciation was not sonic, it was just the concept that got my attention. Next, the actual sounds, tthe second layer, was stunning. The fact that a combination of four air sirens meant to communicate danger or fear, could make such a musical sound, was a breath of fresh air to me. Although i have enjoyed the music so far in this class, musical sounds have not been a theme. The third layer was the amazing rollercoaster ride i was put through while lstening to this. The anticipation for the unknown was amazing. I didnt kn ow what was going to happen when all of the pitches and the pice itself reached their zenith. When it happened, although perfect unison was not achieved, there was an incredible release. I loved the emotions that were manipulated in me and the controll the piece had over them. The fourth layer was the appreciation for the things i could not hear. There were interensting things going on that i could not quite discern. Maybe they were in the recording istself or in the seemingly inadequite speaker system. (This piece required a subwoofer of epic proportions). Regardless of where they came from the sounds or lack there of were intriguing and inspiring. The sixth and final layer of appreciation was for the layers of the piece. This work had an innumerable amount of layers and depths to explore sonicall. There were new things to discover and i will be listening to this piece a lot to discover them. I loved these four simple sirens.

I was upset that Sirens ended up not being on the iPod, because I was curious to listen to it again and play with the climaxes and such, however it wasn’t so my plan ended up being screwed. The thing I liked about “Q” the most was that aching feeling of constant battery. The tones just kept pumping themselves onto me creating this dry and harsh physical effect. For most of the piece I couldn’t tell the difference between the oscillators and the instruments. Somehow it became neither mechanical nor acoustic, it was just one big wall of sound so to speak.

I never realized how picky sound can get. Why is it that western cultural music was designed around half steps, when there is so much more between them? Most people can’t even tell the difference, and lots of people can’t even hear a half step. Who’s idea was it to design sound in this way? Was there some big ancient gathering where musicians got together and created this criteria? There’s so much more to sound than we could possibly even imagine. I mean low bass notes can kill people!!! what the hell man? Why are there a million different ways to produce a song, and yet the majority of popular music boils down to songs that only go as far as 3-chords?

Basically all my ramblin’ boils down to this: I don’t understand how this whole sound thing works. I think there are very few people who truly do. But we all love it, so somethings going right.

Sorry,

-Jackson Meredith