Listening III: Time and Utopia

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Readings Presentation: Darcy Wedd (Mondrian)

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TIME (Beyond extremity)...

As Material…

Short as Long / Long as Short… Short as long

Gyorgy Ligeti - Continuum (1968)

Critical bands (repetition cycles, amplitude modulation, beats, etc.)

Perceptual normalisation through time stream. (ie. imperceptibly short events as clicks, gestural normalisation through similar temporal treatments)

Ernie Gehre: Serene Velocity (1970)

Temporal stratification

Chris Abrahams - Room (2003)

Pacing...

Alfonso Cuarón - Children of Men (2006)
Peter Ablinger - Instrumente und ElektroAkustich Ortsbezogene Verdichtung (1998)
Michael Snow - Wavelength (1967)

Spectromorphology

Achieving Timelessness…

State-based:

La Monte Young - Composition 1960 #7 'To be held for a very long time'- 1960
Peter Ablinger - ANFANGEN: (AUFHöREN) - 1991
Play and Ritual (see below)

Repetition and Directionality:

Alexander Garsden - A distant body (2012)

Convergence and time dialogues:

Hideaki Anno - Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995)
Lawrence Weschler - Everything that rises: A book of convergences (2007)
Zoë Croggon - Arc (2015)
INLAND Concert series programme notes (2014-15)
W.G. Sebald - The Rings of Saturn (1995)

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UTOPIA:

"This music we are making… what role does it take in our daily lives?"

Goals:

- To encourage critical evaluation of motivations of (and interactions with) art-making
- To encourage critical evaluation of the socio-cultural/socio-political function of artistic practices
- To encourage interaction with craft that extends beyond the tri-vector of self-expression / artistic originality / market success.

Ceremony, Ritual & Communion (Social and Transcendental): 

i.e.

Iasos - Inter Dimensional Music (1979)
Ubuweb Ethnopoetics - Glossolalia (1980s?)
Shamanic and Exorcism practices - Sangyhang, Ketjak, and the Ramayana Monkey Chant (rec. David Lewiston, 1969)
Source Family, Father Yod and Yo Ha Wha 13 - Penetration, an Aquarian Symphony (1974)

Play & Activity: 

Examples of Ghana Postal Workers, Inuit Singing games, Prison, Labour and Work songs

Social Change & Self Determination: 

Reggae & Tropicalia movements, British Folk Revival, Utopian Facism, Hermann Nitsch and Viennese Aktionists, Songlines, Cornelius Cardew

Social stratification, definition and goal determination:

'I understand Blues music… you know?  It's wonderful.  A story of a people's disenfranchisement… "I ain't got nothin' and they're takin' that away TOO!" […] Wonderful names all those guys, like 'Blind Dead McJones'… but erm… with Rap it's not like that.  It's all about what people HAVE got, about attainment.  You know, it's very aggressive… "I got pecs, I got limos, I got bitches… My limo's powered by bitch-juice and all my spare pecs are in the limo." […] It's such an infantile mentality… you know can go up to any five year old and ask "What do you think of the world?" and they'll say: "I think it's rubbish, I think it's rubbish… coz I can't get stuff I want… when I want it… I want a big purple chair, and… and french fries… and stuff… and i want it [mumbles incoherently] and i want to get it NOW!".  That's a rap song.  Because, that's what they all think of.  These guys get millions of dollars for this… horseshit… and they immediately go out and spend it all on a floor-length white mink coat, cheeseburgers and a jet.' Dylan Moran - Monster (2003)

Readings Presentation: Tara Milenkovic (Changing face of Hip Hop) and Keith Klancy (Beautiful in Music Today)

Thought exercise:

- Imagine an ideal society
- Imagine the role of music in this society
- Imagine your relationship to music in this society