Finding A Connection

After reading the poem The Tables Turned, I felt like dropping everything and running through the fields like in The Sound of Music. Unfortunately this is not a realistic idea, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t hold value or worth. After watching Vox Arcana with our fellow FYS classmates, it seemed as if they thought you either had to completely love the music or hate it. It seems that the general society seems to act this way in general toward experimental music. Really extremes are not meant to be taken. The artist creates his work knowing that it will not be liked by all, but he creates his work because he hopes that even people who are not his greatest fans can find some connection or appreciation toward his art.

The excerpt we read in class titled The Ultimate Object, started with making connections between the philosophies of Cage and Zen Buddhism. Like experimental music, religion is something that everyone does not entirely agree with, but they can find some form of connection. How many of us call ourselves Catholic, but do we really attend Mass every Sunday or at the least for Holy Days of Obligation? In our culture it is acceptable to say you are a follower of a certain faith, yet not agree with or follow all of the religion’s ideals. This is the same idea with experimental music – the artist is not asking for everyone to love his every project, but to get what you can out of his art.

While driving in the car today I passed an open grassy area and instead of feeling the urge to frolic in the fields, I spent a moment appreciating nature.

Techno and Cage

The techno presentation was fun and really informative. Who knew how complex techno really is? Since techno primarily consists of repetitive beats and rhythms, it was a surprise for me to find that actually a DJ mixes two songs that are in the same time signature and going at the exact same speed. That’s incredible! Like we mentioned in class, when a DJ makes music it is a form of art like any other. A DJ differs from Cageian style in that a DJ works to make his art appealing to his audience; he desires seeing other people enjoying his art and looks for sounds that he knows his audience will enjoy. Cage did not care what his audience thought; he felt people should have an appreciation for all sounds.

Despite this difference, a DJ does follow the ideas of Cage in that when he performs a live show he exhibits the idea that the music will sound different with each performance. This is very interesting because DJ’s always seem to be so composed and prepared. It’s their job to play the catchy tune that everyone is familiar with and to bring out the desire to dance. In a live performance it allows the DJ to step out of the normal comfort zone and make raw music like Cage did.

Incorporating the sound of human breathing and vacuuming into his mixes shows that techno values all sounds. The Dj’s latest piece, the one including the breathing, reminded me of the Satie piece that Cage made. Cage took Sati’s piece and just made it a couple octaves higher. The latest techno piece made by the DJ was an arpeggio raised up a couple octaves and repeated over and over again. I was really surprised to find such similarities between techno and music by Cage.

Techno

I too thought that the DJing was very interesting. I knew about some of the different types of music at clubs and raves, but I did not know them by name or how they were connected or similar. I was surprised to hear that his record label was international. When I went to France, each year, we went to a club for a party at the end of the trip. It was a teen hang out, but techno over there is probably one of if not the most popular types of music listened to. Then, when I went to Amsterdam at our banquet, we had a DJ and he did a lot of similar things and used similar music, but you could tell the difference. But the place that I heard the most difference in techno music was when I was in Italy this year at a club with the team. It was completely different style and beat but you could see a little connection to other types of music. But, it was so big in Italy that when they played music for the big matches during the warm ups, techno was all they played. In the states, they played more hip hop than anything. So it was interesting to now know the different styles that I had heard but never knew too much about. Hopefully this coming summer if I get to go to England, I will be able to listen to that kind of music and be able to compare it to the others also. But, now I definitely do have a greater appreciation for DJ s because there is no way I would be able to do everything they do.
And Penny, I agree Jimmy should DJ for us one day.

Well, At Least I Used Ironic Properly (I Think)

Does anyone else think it’s a bit ironic* that John Cage criticized American involvement in Vietnam, and was taken seriously, at the same time he praised Mao Zedong was his work in China? However you feel about Vietnam, America was fighting a set of brutal dictators who were allied with the Soviet Union and mercilessly crushed any dissent. You could say that American involvement in Vietnam was unwise, but it’s not like we were fighting a group of enlightened people here—the Viet Cong were as brutal a lot as any such group of the last century.

Mao, on the other hand, was basically the Chinese version of Adolf Hitler, except he killed many more people. So well done, Cage—on the one hand, he was dead set against a war that may have been stupid but was morally defensible, on the other, he wrote books praising a mass murderer.

And how are those predictions about how we’d have Mao Zedong to thank if we have everything we need for survival looking? More people than every before in human history are fed and clothed and doctored. What did China do to help? And would Cage still want America to have the “Chinese sense of society?” Yeah, I’ve been really envying the people of Tibet. (Although maybe oppressing New Mexico just a little wouldn’t hurt).

Maybe Cage didn’t know about Mao’s massacres—but he should have, since other people didn’t have much trouble figuring it out. Mao’s brutality was common knowledge among informed people by the time Cage wrote “How to Improve” in 1971. And if Cage drifted away from Mao, he never condemned him; instead, Thoreau became the new object of his admiration.

Could you imagine a former Nazi becoming Secretary General of the United Nations? Or George Wallace getting widespread black support?** But people seem to have no trouble at all swallowing the idea of someone who admired the most bloody dictator of the 20th century as a moral thinker. In my opinion, Cage’s admiration of Mao basically negates whatever moral credibility he might have had.

*Actually, I’m pretty sure that I’m using “irony” correctly here. Even if the whole world uses the word incorrectly, I’m holding the line. Someone needs to stick up for proper usage.

**Okay, maybe I need better examples, since both of those things actually happened, but those were about the most improbable things I could think of. Anyway, I doubt anyone is going to read this far, so I don’t even know why I’m throwing this footnote in here. This post pretty much peaks with the (probable) proper use of “irony,” and by the end of the first paragraph people will grasp the main point and go off to check their Facebook, unless they happen to be Angelle or Penny, who either don’t have Facebooks or have them but I don’t know about them so they’ll probably do something more productive. And I guess Dr. Langguth probably doesn’t have a Facebook either. But anyway, you get my point, except you probably don’t because you probably didn’t get this far.

Techno, God's greatest gift... well except for Jesus

If you couldn't tell I was a little excited about the techno preformance today. I love techno because I always feel so excited and energy packed when I hear it. Its the perfect party music. You just can't sit still when it comes on, and there is no dance style, just random motions (kinda cageian). That being said it was very interesting to see how techno is mixed by a DJ. Its a lot harder than it looks. You have to be very good at listening and focus on track seperately. You also have to know all the details of every song. I can understand why it would take years of practice and exprience to get good at DJ ing. But if you could perfect it, DJing would be the most fun job ever. He seemed very good at it. He played a solid variety of techno but it seemed a little slow for my taste. I enjoy the faster up beat techno. I really want to hear all the various forms of techno. Club, rave, european, they are all different but have their own benefits. Techno in Europe is HUGE, and its one major reason for me to vist there sometimes. I sure a european techno rave would be an exprience like no other. I have always wanted to go to a rave of some type just to exprience a large group all getting crazy to techno. I was surprised that his music and his label was literal world wide. From Japan to Europe, its just crazy. All in all it was a pretty exciting, and informative presentation.

Techno Show and Tell

I'll be the first to say that I thoroughly enjoyed today's crash course in techno music and disk-jockeying (that's what you call it, right?). I hadn't realized how little I knew, both about DJ-ing (?) and techno/electronic music. In fact, I'll admit I knew absolutely nothing and wasn't aware of that fact until he came in and started throwing around all this jargon that I couldn't make heads or tails of. Acknowledging that I knew nothing going in, I was really impressed with the process and how music is created from preexisting music. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that, when first staring out, he choreographed and mapped out all that he did, all the songs that he played. I mean, it's not like knowing how to play an instrument and then just following sheet music, but it's different than jazz improvisation too. Obviously, he's got to play for an audience and cater to their tastes, but he's got to keep it interesting while keeping everything in sync. I don't blame him for not just "going with the flow" right away. It's definitely something you've got to get good at.
I thought it was cool that he does a lot of field recording to find new sounds. Techno and electronic music in general allows you to be free of the limitations of traditional instruments, but also opens up the whole world to be turned into music -and not just in the Cagean sense. You gather sounds from anywhere, but then you can manipulate them on the computer, accentuating the parts that are interesting and toning down those elements that aren't desirable, or that simply don't "jive" with everything else. It's amazing how sounds could potentially be gathered from all over, but then put together in such a way so as to maintain a sense of unity. The same thing is done with different existing records. I mean, if you can make Jessica Simpson sound good, that's talent.
It was also interesting to note that techno and experimental music is more popular in other parts of the world. It's disappointing, really, because electronic music opens up so many more possibilities to music. But I guess that's telling of our culture's ethos. We don't like change, we're comfortable with conventions, and we could build on those conventions forever... and we do. Having pen pals in other countries (France, Senegal, Germany, and Australia) you really do get a sense that the rest of the world is more open to new and different possibilities. Personally, I think it's because of the size of the United States. If other countries were in closer proximity to US citizens, we would undoubtedly have to be more open to other cultures, especially if those cultures were dramatically different from ours. This openness to other cultures would almost have to transcend into other areas, so it's really no surprise that in Europe -where the distance from the center of two countries speaking different languages is comparable from the distance between the center of Ohio to Kentucky- people are generally more open to new ideas.


P.s. Who else thinks that Jimmy should become a DJ and play something for us?

Vox Arcana

I thought both the work shop and the night performance were really interesting. I like Angelle, would not have recognized the pieces as being the same in the night performance if they had not said what the title was. I thought that was very neat because it fit Cage perfectly. Yes, there are some parts of the songs that remain constant, but the other parts will never be the same piece twice. I could definitely see where each of the three had different parts that were very Cagian in themselves. But, they were so different, if you did not know anything about Cage, you would think they were playing the wrong songs because they did not match up at some points.
When my parents went to the night performance, they actually asked me if it was supposed to be the way it turned out. They did not understand it in the least. I tried to explain it to them about different things like why Tim used the different objects on the actual drums themselves, but they never got it. They, like the students at the workshop in the back, were very close minded about the performance so they did not get an opportunity to understand and enjoy the experience. They thought that since it was not traditional style music, that it was not thought out before the performance, or one of them was messing something up. They did this when in fact each of the three were playing it as "perfectly" as one can play impromptu music. Even though some people did not want to understand it, those of us who either understood it, or at least had an open mind about it and wanted to try to understand it, enjoyed the performance, and asking them questions about subjects we have been studying this semester. Like a few of my friends who went to the workshop and had no idea what they were doing, they asked me afterwards to explain and then they actually enjoyed all of the music they had just heard.