concepts and elaborations

Phonemena by Milton Babbitt
This piece is a female vocalist enhanced by electronic sound effects in the background. This piece uses these electronic sounds to enhance the effect of the voice by adding many effects to it. At some points it seems the voice itself is modified, but this could just be due to the sounds used in conjunction with the notes. These two offsetting sounds, the organic and the digital, create an interesting balance. However, the whimsical sounds sometimes cut into the voice making the piece break and lose the flow of the work. Adding these sonic objects and layering them with the voice is very innovative. It is not something that seems to be done very often. People manipulate the actual voice frequently, but it is an interesting mix to hear the voice layered with a different set of sounds intending to point out different sections of interest. Using this tradition element of an operatic singer, with the elements of electronic manipulation is very effective. For this work, it seems like the artist was going for a whimsical opera. Maybe something out of a sci-fi movie (the opera scene in The Fifth Element comes to mind.) I think it is a very successful piece, because it fuses the new and the old in a very pleasing and interesting way. This piece is able to capture a very traditional tone, but change it with the extra sounds into an electro-acoustic piece.
Idle Chatter by Paul Lansky
This piece is a series of modified voice samples arranged in a way to form a melody. This piece takes a series of samples and creates a very interesting rhythm and melody with them. The piece is very interesting to listen to and is more fast paced then many of the other songs. The only weakness in this piece is the samples themselves. It might have been more interesting if the actual samples were recognizable words or phrases. I think that could have added a very human and organic aspect to the work. I think the piece itself is very innovative. It combines these robotic voices seemingly talking with other voices in the background seemingly singing. The combination of these creates interesting layers of sound that draw the listener in. I think the composer takes the traditional elements of melody and rhythm and successfully replicates them using these robotic voice samples. The aesthetic of the work, as the composer suggests in the title, is that of a party. It sounds like being at a party surrounded by people, hearing the roar of voices and conversations, but not really being able to distinguish individual voices. The work is very successful in capturing this, with the cacophony of voices making up the foreground of the piece, and the ambient swelling voices making up the background of the piece. This creates a mood of being in a crowded room, but not being able to distinguish anything that is going on.

Two part invention no 8 in f major by wendy carlos

This piece is a very traditional classical piece modified to seem almost silly. It reminds me of an old time ball room danicing piece, but it seems like it is sped up very fast pretty much just sounds silly. As with her other work, its seems like Carlos is taking very traditional songs and making them sound out of place. This seems like it should be innovative, taking something traditional and making it in a different way, but for some reason it just comes off as silly. I think the choice of the very high pitched fast instrument gives it a very informal feel but combined with the classic sound of the piece it creates a dichotomy in the brain. While you know it should be taking seriously, because it is a respect piece, what comes to mind is a very silly slapstick cartoon or a silent comedy film. If the composer intended to create these illusions, I think it is a very effective piece, however, its seems that they more likely just wanted a piece that sounded silly.

Streichquartett by Hanz Werner Henze

This is a very light and airy piece that is hard to tell there is much electronic manipulation done to it. It sounds like it was recorded with a violin or some other kind of stringed instrument. It has a very complex, intense start, and eventually fades down to very quiet, which could be the electronic component of this song. It does not sound like this was made completely with a computer, but maybe some of the real long notes were created with the help of a computer. This piece is successful because even though there is some sort of electronic manipulation done to it, it is not noticeable at first listen. The aesthetic of this work is very melancholy and sad. I think the composer uses the different intensities of the sounds to create and interesting variation between the sounds we hear very clearly, and the sounds that you have to strain your ears to hear. This intent listening really draws the listener into the song.

Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G Major – II. Andante by Wendy Carlos

Is a classical piece performed on an electric piano. There are many different pitch bends and sound effects in the piece, which make it more interesting then your typical classical piece. The strengths of this work are its melody and versatility of sounds. The different sound effects combine to create very interesting sound layers. However, some of the sounds used are borderline campy. Some seem like they could have been created using a children’s piano toy. These sounds add a layer of informality to the work. However, if these were created by an actual children’s piano (or something similar) this re-appropriation of technology could be very inventive. The aesthetic that comes from this work reminds me of an 8-bit video game soundtrack. It sounds like the midi tracks used to create the sounds for old Nintendo games. This aesthetic is very successful though, because for me it creates visuals of these games while I am listening to the piece.

Concert PH by Innis Xenakis

Is a very piece with recorded sounds that sound like they are from a wind chime or some sort of percussive instrument. It is a piece that relies only on one source for its music. It is textually build up from the clanking of the object, and the overlap of these sounds creates the sonic texture used throughout the piece. This piece, however, is very redundant. The sound, while it is interesting, seems to almost carry the whole piece the whole way though, but at the end it leaves the listening wishing that something more happened in the song. Using one sound could be considered innovative, but it seems like more variety could have been used to make the sounds more interesting. The aesthetic intention of this work seems to call in inspiration from a wind chime or rain hitting a tin roof. While this is achieve somewhat, it seems that the piece could use more variation to make it stronger.

When I am WithYou – Charles Dodge

“When I am With You” by Charles Dodge is a composition made of a modified speech sample. A very digital sounds voice says, “when I am with you I am two places at once.” The whole song is a phrase spoken by this digital voice. All of the sounds in this song are similar, and this creates a cohesive feel to the song. However, this also gives some redundancy to the song. The composer changes the pitch of the voice to add some variety to the work, but even with this change the whole orchestration of the work is very repetitive. There are not very many traditional elements to this work, except for the notes and scales that the voice climbs towards the middle of the song. Aesthetically, I think the composer was going for a robotic feel to the work. The work seems to tease and challenge the human voice by repeating things very quickly and going very high and low, something that would be impossible with an unaltered human voice. I think this help to fulfill the idea of a robotic entity performing this work. I can see how this would be an important experimental stage in the creation of electronic music, but I don’t see it as something pleasing to listen to.

Come Out – Steve Reich

“Come Out” by Steve Reich is a song using a looped sample of the phrase “come out to show them.” It is repeated and looped very quickly. The composer starts to offset the phrases to first create an echo, but the offset eventually leads to a rhythm of sounds. Towards the end of the song, the words are inaudible, but the rhythm and melody are still there. This work is very innovative in my opinion, because it creates an entire composition out of a half second sound sample. Although the song is repetitive, the offset of the sample creates aural interest in the song. After the words become inaudible, the rhythm and the melody of the song still carry it. The artist seems to be going for a very haunting aesthetic, and I think this is achieved by only the use of human sounds to create a song that is very inhuman sounding as it progresses. I think this is very successful song. Not only does it utilize a very unique approach to creating a composition, it does so in an attractive and aesthetically pleasing way.