MUSIC 15 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Pauline Oliveros, Great Learning, Cornelius Cardew
Guest Lecture Julian Day
Interdependent Listening: The Art of Super Critcal Mass
● Composer, artist, broadcaster
Super Critical Mass
● Video takes place in the MOCA of Austrailia
○ Using interacctions to structure themselves vocally; singers given instructions
○ Up close to painting: lower register
○ Further back, higher register
○ Low hum if you approach painting
■ Second person comes in, hum in synchronization
■ Third person comes to art: opens out hum to an :ahh”
○ Towards the end, singing comes together
● Sounds is like energy
○ Literal aspect as the clap creates the sound
○ Spacial aspect as sound travels throughout the room
○ Social interaction: connection is made between creator and listener
In the Blink of an Ear; Toward A Non-Coclear Sonic Art by Seth Kim-Cohen
● “Music has long enjoyed its reputation as the abstract art form par excellence… Musical
meaning has traditionally been consumed or constructed in the mode of abstraction;
form is understood by self referential and self-justifying, gestures and decisions making
sense only relative to a logic established internally” -Seth Kim Cohen
○ Thinking conceptually about music
○ Tried to broaden the walls around music; Music is more than just notes: it’s the
people buying tickets, the people working at the door at the concert hall, people
operating lights, etc
● “Sound and hte sonic arts are firmly rooted in the material world and the powers, forces,
intensities, and becomings of which it is composed… [therefore] we might begin to treat
artistic productions not as complex signs of signs or represnetations but complexes of
forces materially inflected by other force-complexes” -Christopher Cox
○ Thinking materially about music
○ What really happens when you sing a note? A certain pitch vibrating vocal chords
exiting through the mouth and projected throughout the room?
● “Sound is intrisically and unignorably relational… the acoustical event is a social one…
Listening is thus a form of participation in the sharing of a sound event.” -Brandon
LaBelle
○ Thinking of the social aspect of sound
○ Intimate act of creating a relationship through the sounds emited from one
person to another
○ Contributes to the idea of super critical mass
Super Critical Mass video 2
● 80 flute players in a secular concrete theater
○ No composer
○ No stands
○ Atypical of orchestras
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Interdependent listening: the art of super critcal mass. Video takes place in the moca of austrailia. Using interacctions to structure themselves vocally; singers given instructions. Second person comes in, hum in synchronization. Third person comes to art: opens out hum to an :ahh . Literal aspect as the clap creates the sound. Spacial aspect as sound travels throughout the room. Social interaction: connection is made between creator and listener. In the blink of an ear; toward a non-coclear sonic art by seth kim-cohen. Tried to broaden the walls around music; music is more than just notes: it"s the people buying tickets, the people working at the door at the concert hall, people operating lights, etc. Sound is intrisically and unignorably relational the acoustical event is a social one . Listening is thus a form of participation in the sharing of a sound event. -brandon. Thinking of the social aspect of sound.
