Listening b(log): Steve Reich's Music for Pieces of Wood

I listened to a piece entitled Music for Pieces of Wood by minimalist composer Steve Reich. The piece is scored for five sets of tuned claves. It was written in 1973.

This piece begins simply--a single set of claves lays down a quarter note beat that continues throughout the piece. The second person to enter plays a repeating twelve-note pattern. In typical Steve Reich style, the other three members of the group play the same pattern as the second player, either in unison or offset by a beat, requiring several repetitions of the twelve-note pattern for the players to "line up" with each other. Because the claves are tuned differently, and there are constantly changing rhythms, there is a surprisingly complex web of sound that develops fairly quickly.

I thought of this piece in relation to the reading on Deep Listening because I think that minimalist music is, initially, easy to understand. The repetitive nature of minimalist pieces can be a fantastic tool to help teach students how to listen deeply. If something is repeated over and over, as in this work and the work of many minimalist composers, students can latch onto and feel the "groove" of the music. This is even more powerful when one is participating in the music. Using this piece as a point of departure, I could very easily access the ears of my students to help them tune into deep listening, helping them to realize that music does not have to be Western Classical Art music to be both rewarding and appealing.

Listening b(log): Low Entropy: Crystalline

I listened to a piece entitled Crystalline by a man whose real name is Soenke Moehl. He is better known as Low Entropy. This piece was produced on an electronic instrument. To my ears, this style might be characterized as new age or progressive.

I found this piece by accident looking for a piece of Baroque music that uses the just intonation system (as opposed to the equal intonation system that modern Western ears are used to). Just intonation differs from equal intonation because it uses a system of ratios to tune intervals based on the stability of the perfect intervals of the fourth and the fifth. True "perfect" fifths have a ratio of 300:200 Hz, or 3:2, and Crystalline is a piece that is built on this tuning system. To me, this piece is haunting. It slows time down, brings my heart rate up, unnerves me, and interests me. At this point in my blog, I have listened to the piece continuously for what feels like hours (but is, in fact, only around 20 minutes).

What does this have to do with authenticity, and why did I just explain a seemingly esoteric tuning system for a world music class? Because, in spite of the fact that we know that lots and lots of Baroque era music was built with just intonation in mind, we continue to practice and perform Baroque era music on modern instruments in equal temperament. I suppose that it is just less work to train the Western ear to hear more than one system of tuning as "normal". However, after only a few listenings of "Crystalline", I am finding myself oddly at ease with the new work my ears are having to do. It's repetitious and satisfying and new and wonderful all at the same time. And doesn't every schoolchild that walks through my door have the right and opportunity to experience this in the form of exposure to the "old" music of the Baroque, to the "new" music of "Crystalline", to the microtuned scales of India?

listening (b)Log: Enter the Haggis' "Litter and Leaves"

I listened to a song called "Litter and Leaves" by Enter the Haggis, a Toronto-based Celtic band. The song is an example of the band's blend of various styles of music, mainly between traditional Celtic styles and rock and pop idioms. The orchestration of the song: vocals, bagpipe, and drums.

This band has a definite fusion style. The band is not traditional in its orchestration for a rock band, and also deviates from Celtic band orchestration. The band is forming its own niche, both in the rock band and Celtic band worlds. The band is especially interesting to me because of the geographical location of the band (Canada). This speaks to the migration of the bagpipe as an instrument, which accompanied groups of people to many areas, including Canada and the U.S..

The instrument itself is an aerophone. A reservoir for air provides a drone that accompanies tunes played on the chanter. The instrument has an association with Scotland's military history. The instrument was outlawed in the medieval era in England because of the national associations with Scotland, and the Scottish rebellion for political independence. The idea of both freedom and release from political repression is embodied in the sound of the bagpipe, which is part of its appeal as an instrument used in this Celtic world fusion band.