Endangered Silence

This week at OnBeing.org, host Krista Tippet talks with sound ecologist Gordon Hempton about vanishing soundscapes and "silence" as an endangered species.


"Our cities, our suburbs, our farm communities, even our most expansive and remote national parks are not free from human noise intrusions. Nor is there relief even at the North Pole; continent-hopping jets see to that. Moreover, fighting noise is not the same as preserving silence. Our typical anti-noise strategies — earplugs, noise cancellation headphones, even noise abatement laws — offer no real solution because they do nothing to help us reconnect and listen to the land. And the land is speaking." -Hempton, Sounds of Silence


The proliferation of human sound pollution to even the most remote regions of the world is discussed via the metaphor of disease and, recalling the warning of Robert Koch, developer of the scientific method that identifies the causes of disease, Hempton believes that "the unchecked loss of silence is a canary in a coal mine-a global one. If we cannot make a stand here, if we turn a deaf ear to the issue of vanishing natural quiet, how can we expect to fare better with more complex environmental crises?"

Though I'm not sure Cage would have employed so passionate and aggressive a metaphor, I'm sure he would share the sentiment. Human-made sounds are wonderful and technologies offer so much potential for something new and exciting, but humans must not lose sight of the natural sounds which already characterize the natural world -and which face extinction if neglected. Perhaps some "4:33 intervention" is needed. We need to recognize the soundscapes that nature offers us before seeking to improve upon them. 


You can download the podast of Tippet's interview with Hempton here.

Pachyderm Prodigy

When caretakers at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park noticed that Shanthi, an Asian elephant, tended to use her body in musically rhythmic ways, someone got the bright idea to give her an instrument. Guess what? Shanthi developed a panache for the harmonica and learned to play horns, too. You can see s video of one of her "concerts" here.

Awkward Silence?

     National Public Radio's show, All Things Considered, has been doing a series called "Why Music Matters."This week, they did this great feature on dancer and choreographer Amy O'Neal, who took on the challenge of dancing in complete silence. Ahem, I'm not going to say that it hasn't been done before because, ahem, yours truly undertook her own similar experiment, but it was intriguing to get another dancer's take on the experience.
       "I had to do a performance a couple years ago where I couldn't use any music," O'Neal says. "I had 15 minutes without sound. I felt like, OK, well, I need to have some kind of circumstances to deal with — so I asked people to bring me different outfits to wear. I would end up changing out there and sort of embodying whatever outfit it was that they had brought in."  O'Neal says that although she liked the idea at first, seeing video of her performance was not what she had expected.
      "When I saw the video I was like — oh my god, why are you doing that? You're just doing that because you're nervous about it being quiet," O'Neal says. Aha! Dancers are notoriously afraid of the "awkward silence," from my own experience, and O'Neal's insights seem to support this. "These questions came up: Is music a crutch for me? Why do I have to have it? Why can't I just be up there alone?" Yeah. Been there, sister. You dedicate so much time and energy to your craft, and you don't see why it shouldn't be able to stand alone, but then it does, and you feel so naked without the music.
      "There's an inherent tension and beauty in silence," she adds. "Things really aren't ever silent — there's always something, whether it be your breath or somebody coughing. But then, when music happens, everything sort of becomes alive."
     What I want to know is when this "music happens." And what is the state of things when they aren't "alive."

Scruggs Style

Earl Scruggs, bluegrass legend, died this past Wednesday at age 88. Famous for his three-fingered banjo-style, he defined the bluegrass sound as we have come to know it today. Adding syncopation to the banjo and giving it almost a jazz-like approach, the style was even named "Scruggs style." How cool is that? I need a "style" named after me...

National Public Radio did a piece on his life and legacy here.

Equestrian Orchestra

The summer Olympic games are taking place in London this year.

I knew that.

Dressage is an equestrian sport people will be competing in.

I knew that too.

Composer Tom Hunt is at work with members of a British team to compose music for the horses, paying careful attention to what each event calls for and, more importantly, what each specific horse will best respond to.

I didn't know that.

Mr. Hunt says that, when composing such pieces, you have to establish what sort of music the horse can respond to, just like you might do with people. What does this mean? Well, he explains that, if you have a big strong horse, you might want to use a big orchestral arrangement. But if you have a fun horse with more dainty movements and friendly characteristics, you might go for pop.

Some pretty interesting, beautiful and even epic original pieces have been composed for these horses, all for their various events. When asked if he thinks the horses express a preference for his work, Hunt says that he'd like to think that the horses are responding to the music because it's been designed with them in the mind. According to him, he never composes music that isn't going to suit them.

If you ask me, I think they might be a rather thankless audience. But then, I don't have a dancing horse.

The Antithesis of Easy Listening

If I say "Opera," what do you think of? Stuffy concert halls stuffed with huffy hushed audience?Sweating sopranos belting out glass-cracking Italian crescendos? The aged elite able to shell out the cash for such a performance? Come on. The answers yes, isn't it?

Now, if I say "Rap," I'm sure quite different images enter the mind. In-your-face ibonic rhymes, delivered by shirtless, tattooed black men? Controversial themes and lyrics, blasting out of car windows reverberating with bass? even if you thought of something else, I assume it's something different than those things mentioned above.

These are commonly held stereotypes, admit it. But surveys show that the majority of listeners worldwide tend to shy away from both musical styles. Rap and opera tend to be the musical genres people feel most strongly about (positively or negatively), despite their distinct differences. Makes one wonder why that could be...

There's, of course, the complex issue of taste to be considered. Social and cultural conditioning, values associated with both musical types and the aforementioned stereotypes. All load each genre with heavy associated baggage. Some people reject both groups, while others relish degrees of perceived inclusion, "taking sides" if you will. It is not outlandish to say that perceptions help determine musical choices and vice versa.

Digging deeper, one can argue that there are many connections, not least of which is the obsessiveness of each genre's most dedicated aficionados.

Consider the opera fanatics. I don't know about you, but those that I've met incessantly critique all aspects of singers, conductors, directors, composers, set designers and opera companies. The hard-core opera geeks know the intricacies of how the human voice works, and how it "should" work in any given operatic role performed by any given singer. Certain voices fit certain roles perfectly, but singers often try on roles a size or two too big. Not pretty, and the opera fan will be sure to loudly point that out.

In the "higher realms of rap," you have to navigate the interior social strata, the subtleties of sampling and layers of meaning behind the braggadocio and how it relates to selling records. Rap, like opera, also has a complicated "cast list." Keeping up with who appears on whose singles, mixtapes and remixes can be as confounding as keeping track of who sang what on the famous Knappertsbusch Ring cycles. And with rap, like opera, there are a huge amount of regional variety, from Compton to Atlanta to the Bronx, London and Istanbul. It's like high school all over again. Who doing what and with who and who's cool now and who's not anymore.

There are some, however, that say society has little to do with preferences.

Rather, they're all about communication. The languages of rap and opera just don't speak to some people. Both the actual language that each genre uses in performance and the convoluted vernaculars each has engendered There are actually dictionaries of both hip hop and opera jargon). Opera and rap rely heavily on words, many of which are not immediately discernible (especially if you actually don't happen to speak the language). Rap can have complex poetry (and profanity) zipping past at indecipherable speeds (do they want you to hear it? And what about those "turbo-rappers?"). Opera often has foreign tongues and high flying phrasing, requiring CD listeners to run to their printed librettos and opera houses to install supertitles. Yes, that's right: supertitles.

The bottom line, in my opinion, is that Opera and rap take work to appreciate — perhaps more work than these average listeners are willing to expend.In a world where more and more music is available to anyone's ears, there have developed a great many lazy listeners (harsh, I know, but true, I think). Is it too easy to download too much, to acquire everything but actually hear nothing? Um, yeah, it is. Many people love a hit song, but few take the time to fully appreciate a complete hip-hop album, let alone an entire opera. It also takes work to enjoy music that's as in-your-face as opera and rap admittedly are.

With all the melodrama, social consciousness, violence and intense vocal styles, they certainly are not musical furniture. Like it or hate it, it's definitely in the room.

Deep Listening- 2012 John Cage Award Goes to Pauline Oliveros

From the Deep Listening Institute Website:



PAULINE OLIVEROS RECEIVES 2012 JOHN CAGE AWARD FROM THE FOUNDATION FOR CONTEMPORY ARTS Ceremony Slated for March 19 at Merce Cunningham Dance Studio in NYC


“Through Pauline Oliveros and Deep Listening, I finally know what harmony is...It’s about the pleasure of making music.” - - John Cage, 1989


Kingston, NY, February 15, 2012 – Composer Pauline Oliveros has been named the winner of the 2012 John Cage Award, given biennially by the Foundation for Contemporary Arts (FCA). This prestigious $50,000 award was established in 1992 in honor of the late composer, who was one of FCA’s founders. Selected by FCA’s Directors, the John Cage Award is made in recognition of outstanding achievement in the arts for work that reflects the spirit of John Cage. The selection is made from invited nominations. Oliveros will receive the award in a ceremony slated for March 19 at the Merce Cunningham Dance Studio in New York City.
“I am honored and delighted to receive the John Cage Award,” says Pauline Oliveros. “May the freedom that Cage inspired with his work continue to spread, sustain and open minds throughout the world.”
Oliveros is a senior figure in contemporary American music and founder of the Deep Listening Institute of Kingston, NY. Since the 1960s, Oliveros has worked with improvisation, meditation, electronic music, myth and ritual. In addition to the John Cage Award, Oliveros was honored with the William Schuman Award in 2010. She was honored in 1985 with a retrospective at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, and represented the United States at the 1970 World’s Fair in Osaka, Japan.
Oliveros has built a loyal following through her concerts, recordings and publications, and musical compositions that she has written for soloists and ensembles in music, dance, theater and inter-arts companies. She has also provided leadership within the music community from her early years as the first director of the Center for Contemporary Music (formerly the Tape Music Center at Mills), director of the Center for Music Experiment during her 14-year tenure as professor of music at the University of California at San Diego, and acting in an advisory capacity for organizations such as The National Endowment for the Arts, The New York State Council for the Arts and many private foundations.
Through her work at universities and colleges, including Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and Bard College, she has influenced generations of young composers. Additionally, Oliveros is a Distinguished Research Professor of Music at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a Darius Milhaud Composer-in-Residence at Mills College in Oakland, CA.
Oliveros is vocal about representing the needs of individual artists, about the need for
diversity and experimentation in the arts, and promoting cooperation and good will among people. Most recently, she composed music for use by the Occupy movement.
"FCA is pleased to honor Ms. Oliveros's many accomplishments in music/sound with the 2012 John Cage Award,” says Stacy Stark, executive director of FCA. “She joins a distinguished and small group of artists who have been recognized for their ground- breaking work in the performing arts and who reflect the spirit of John Cage."
Founded and guided by artists, FCA’s mission is to encourage, sponsor and promote innovative work in the arts created and presented by individuals, groups and organizations. Artists working in dance, music/sound, performance art/theater, poetry and the visual arts are awarded nonrestrictive grants to use at their own discretion; arts organizations receive project or general operating support by application and a fund is maintained to help artists with work-related emergencies.
Since FCA’s inception in 1963, nearly 900 artists have donated work to raise funds for these grants. The current directors of the Foundation are: Brooke Alexander, Frances Fergusson, Agnes Gund, Jasper Johns, Julian Lethbridge, Glenn Ligon, Kara Walker and T.J. Wilcox.
Media Contacts:
Pauline Oliveros Publicist Linda Shockley: shockleyny@aol.com; 917-521-0711 www.paulineoliveros.us
Foundation for Contemporary Arts Development Director Catherine Massey: cm@contemporary-arts.org; 212-807-7077 www.foundationforcontemporaryarts.org/
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