Ben and I walked into the studio room, turned the lights off, and pushed the play button. The Kits Beach Soundwalk by Hildegard Westerkamp is the shorted piece of the two listening pieces assigned to us this week.
This piece mostly consists of a field recording of a beach - located in the heart of Vancouver. Hildegard narrates throughout the piece and as her narrative changes, so does the soundscape. This piece showcases an interesting combination of natural sounds and artificial sounds and how the two interact with each other.
It was very interesting to hear how just emphasising one sound over the other in the entirety of the soundscape can entirely change the visual image of the piece. When I was listening to the piece, I was surprised to hear how just by changing the level of higher frequency "white-noise" could change the atmosphere from being calm to a very windy day. Similarly, she starts talking about the city noises and then slowly brings down the levels of the city noises using filters, and the visual imagery immediately changes to that of being "somewhere far-away".
The second piece we were assigned was “I Am Sitting In A Room” by Alvin Lucier. First off, I couldn't believe I had listened to 45 minutes of the same track with an ever-increasing and dampening reverb on it. The piece starts with a narration of what he's trying to do with the piece. Then every time the narrative repeats, a sort of reverb is added onto the voice. It seems like almost the size of the room is shrinking with every repeat.
After listening to the piece, I talked to Ben about it and he told me he could barely notice any difference in the first few repeats. That came as a surprise to me because I could hear the difference right from the very first repeat. As the piece progresses, the sound becomes more and more wet, and metallic. One starts to hear the overtone series and the natural frequencies of the room. Towards the end, I heard a particular interval, which Ben and I agreed upon was a perfect fourth, and long sustained pitches even when Lucier wasn't speaking.
This piece mostly consists of a field recording of a beach - located in the heart of Vancouver. Hildegard narrates throughout the piece and as her narrative changes, so does the soundscape. This piece showcases an interesting combination of natural sounds and artificial sounds and how the two interact with each other.
It was very interesting to hear how just emphasising one sound over the other in the entirety of the soundscape can entirely change the visual image of the piece. When I was listening to the piece, I was surprised to hear how just by changing the level of higher frequency "white-noise" could change the atmosphere from being calm to a very windy day. Similarly, she starts talking about the city noises and then slowly brings down the levels of the city noises using filters, and the visual imagery immediately changes to that of being "somewhere far-away".
The second piece we were assigned was “I Am Sitting In A Room” by Alvin Lucier. First off, I couldn't believe I had listened to 45 minutes of the same track with an ever-increasing and dampening reverb on it. The piece starts with a narration of what he's trying to do with the piece. Then every time the narrative repeats, a sort of reverb is added onto the voice. It seems like almost the size of the room is shrinking with every repeat.
After listening to the piece, I talked to Ben about it and he told me he could barely notice any difference in the first few repeats. That came as a surprise to me because I could hear the difference right from the very first repeat. As the piece progresses, the sound becomes more and more wet, and metallic. One starts to hear the overtone series and the natural frequencies of the room. Towards the end, I heard a particular interval, which Ben and I agreed upon was a perfect fourth, and long sustained pitches even when Lucier wasn't speaking.
Ani--very good blog post. You write clearly and thoughtfully about both pieces, offering some good, specific comments and observations along the way. I think your next post can be just a little more detailed. I have a good sense of how you hear these, in a broad sense, but it would be good to have a little more specificity. Good work!
ReplyDeleteI also found it interesting how Westerkamp changed the entire atmosphere of the piece just by using a filter to cut out some sounds or focus on others. And how she guided the listener through the entire process, telling us when she what she was going to change or focus on.
ReplyDeleteAni,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your post. Your experience is mostly reflective of my own. One comment that I thought was particularly interesting was that it seemed to you as if the room was shrinking with every repeat, maybe like "shower room" acoustics. To me, though, it felt as if the room was becoming larger, perhaps like an airplane hanger with a metallic echo. Either way, I agree that it felt like one was being transported to a completely different space by the end.