PART A. INVESTIGATE 2 SOUND ARTISTS
Ami Roshida- thereness of a voice
Ami Roshida is a Japanese sound poet. She made a variety of vocalisations of such a nature that was in my perspective hard to tell that the sounds were being produced by a voice at all. I believe that these sounds were at some point subtly electronically altered. So this piece was at some points creepy, but I actually liked it. . I heard sounds of inhaling, whistling and a sound that was strikingly similar to the grudge. Personally, I hate the grudge. I keep asking myself, what does this piece mean or how are some parts such as the random high pitched whistling had to do with the poem, and thats when I keep reminding myself that it doesn’t have to mean anything, because it sound, it doesn’t need a purpose. One thing that I find highly common among sound artists is repitition. Yoshida constantly goes back and forth with sounds, and I find that very effective because it almost made me forget all about the song and just kind of zone out, and feel the pattern in the music. Yoshida describes her means of producing sound as the “howling voice”, which is a quality that differs her from many of the other sound artists, and makes her unique.
Christine Duncan- element 3
The next artist I would like to talk about is Christine Duncan, a sound artists of whom her inspirations are artists such as Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Aretha Franklin. Christine Duncan began learning her craft in church, singing gospel. This can explain why this piece is a choir, just like in church. Duncan performs nearly every conceivable musical style including jazz, R&B, blues, gospel, folk, new music, opera and even children’s music. This piece was in the beginning, just like the first piece by Yoshida, pretty creepy. After half way throught the piece, the echoes changed and I tried to contemplate what they were saying, but I couldn’t make out the words. Clearly repitition was visible in this piece as the echoes were saying the same things over and over, but also she also used different sound elements such as a violin in the beginning of her song, and various different instruments throughout. This piece actually created some form of imagery in my head in which I pictured little creatures marching, holding flamed torches, destroying everything in anything in their path, I know, funny huh? What’s distinctive about Duncan’s style is that she seems to play music, but in choirs. There is more than one voice at a time or a voice followed by a different voice, which I found pretty neat.
PART B. INVESTIGATE 2 IDEAS ABOUT SOUND
John Cage talks about sound
I really enjoyed John Cage’s ideas and outlook on sound. The biggest thing I possibly learned from this was the idea that sound does not have to mean something. Learning this almost made me feel more at ease. Perhaps it was because at times, I would wander through my house making noises with my mouth, and my parents would always say, ” What are you saying, if you have nothing meaningful to say, then stop wasting your breath”. Well, next time they say that, I’m sure to bring up Cage:) It’s weird that most of us don’t realize things like this. I mean, in this world we live in, all the things we have to do, it just really blinds us from all the great little things in life, and well, that sucks. I think that by kbowing this, we should test our boundaries and experiment with making compositions and poems without having to contain any meaning. Try it sometime. Check outCage’s video -<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcHnL7aS64Y>
Stephen Fry- The Joy of Gibberish
Well, before I begin on elaborating on this idea, I’d just like to say that I had just found out that Stephen Fry is best friend’s with my favourite actor (also the love of my life), Hugh Laurie. Yah I know right, what a coincidence, not to mention that he is the godfather of Hugh’s three children, amazing:D Anywho, Stephan Fry really was an eye opener for me. I have never seen jibberish to be of any relevence to our world and through Fry’s careful exposure of different pieces and theories, I understood its whole purpose. I also loved the piece by Mary Poppin’s as it had reminded me of my childhood days. It really was amazing to me as how Fry even thought of the idea of jibberish as something we need in our lives. Also, it was interesting to me how Fry said that as humans, we constantly attempt to associate words with meanings and purposes, even out of complete jibberish! HAHA, funny. Why do we as humans do this? I guess we were created in a way that seeks purpose and order within everything. All in all, Fry is a very intelligent guy, an I applaud him for that.
