Performative Listening

Performative Listening A Cultural Anatomy of Studio Sound Enterprise Name: Steven Vrouwenvelder Student number: 6049400 Thesis rMA Cultural Analysis Supervisor: Dr. Timothy F. Yaczo Second reader: Prof. Dr. Julia J.E. Kursell Date: 15-06-2016 Vrouwenvelder 2 Contents Acknowledgments ........................................................................................................................ 3 Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 4 Listening .............................................................................................................................................................. 6 Cultural anatomy ................................................................................................................................................ 8 Performativity ................................................................................................................................................................... 9 Translation ...................................................................................................................................................................... 11 The External Ear: Creation ...........................................................................................................13 Tuning ............................................................................................................................................................... 14 Modes of listening as ideality ......................................................................................................................................... 15 Forward listening .............................................................................................................................................. 15 Verstehen and forelistening ............................................................................................................................................ 16 Construction of roles ....................................................................................................................................................... 17 Directed listening .............................................................................................................................................. 18 Ascoltando ...................................................................................................................................................................... 19 Guide............................................................................................................................................................................... 19 The Middle Ear: Recording ...........................................................................................................22 The Microphone ............................................................................................................................................... 23 Assistive media ............................................................................................................................................................... 23 Resistive media ............................................................................................................................................................... 26 The Room .......................................................................................................................................................... 28 Construction of the self through listening ....................................................................................................................... 28 Construction of SSE-Noord .............................................................................................................................................. 29 The Inner Ear: Processing .............................................................................................................31 Imitative Devices............................................................................................................................................... 32 Echo, reverb and delay .................................................................................................................................................... 32 Is imitation listening? ...................................................................................................................................................... 33 Reflexive listening ............................................................................................................................................. 34 Non-human listening ...................................................................................................................................................... 36 The Nervous System: Mixing ........................................................................................................38 Arrangement ..................................................................................................................................................... 40 Psychoacoustics ................................................................................................................................................ 43 The Brain: Beyond SSE-Noord ......................................................................................................45 Reduced listening ............................................................................................................................................. 46 Entendre and Reduced Listening ..................................................................................................................................... 46 Reduced Listening at SSE-Noord ..................................................................................................................................... 48 Detached listening ............................................................................................................................................ 50 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................53 Works cited .................................................................................................................................57 Vrouwenvelder 3 Acknowledgments For the realization of this thesis, I was dependent upon the cooperation and assistance of many people. First of all, I would like to thank Frans Hagenaars, because without his permission I could not have observed and analyzed my object. I would like to thank all of the band members and musicians who I was allowed to observe and interview: Aart Schroevers, Annita Langereis, Arnold Lasseur, Bart van Strien, Ben Bakker, Berend Dubbe, Brian Pots, Danny Vera, Erik Kriek, Josephine van Schaik, Peter Peskens, Pyke Pasman, Reyer Zwart, Robert-Jan Kanis, Sonny Groeneveld, and Sophie ter Schure. I am very grateful to M.D. Emil den Bakker for introducing me to the basics of the human ear and for lending me his textbooks. Of course, I also wish to thank my supervisor, Dr. Tim Yaczo, and my teachers at the cultural analysis and musicology departments, especially Prof. Dr. Julia Kursell, for inspiring me and stimulating me to keep improving my thesis. Lastly, I would like to thank my girlfriend, Iris Gadellaa, for her inexhaustible support. Vrouwenvelder 4 Introduction It is cold—February cold—outside Studio Sound Enterprise, but inside a “desert” song is about to be recorded. Frans Hagenaars, Ben Bakker, and Reyer Zwart listen to the demo which today’s artist, Danny Vera, has recorded. When thinking of this song, Danny imagines a cowboy on a horse in the desert. In the future, he wishes to perform this song with three people live for the radio. Frans, who is directing this session, reminds the musicians that they are currently recording. He means that Danny can always strip down the song for live performances. Frans suggests that the synthesizer heard in the demo can be replaced with high strings. He reckons further that they should add double trumpets to attain the stereotypical Mexican sound. Danny plays a soundtrack by Ennio Morricone and tells Ben that he is looking for a similar sound. Ben, as a regular session drummer, knows how to get that result. He explains, but the others do not fully understand. Ben gets the chance to record so the others can hear what he means. They decide to record a basic take. The musicians record with a “click track”1 to maintain their tempo. In this way, they can replace every recorded track with another later. After recording, they listen to the result, but no one is enthusiastic about what they hear. Danny tells Ben that the result is too “military,” so Danny does not want to continue in this direction. They decide to record a new basic take. This time, Ben plays with brushes and Danny trades his acoustic guitar for an electric one. Listening to this new basic take makes Danny happy. This is the take he wants to work with—this take evokes the picture in Danny’s imagination. When I first walked into Studio Sound Enterprise (SSE-Noord) in Amsterdam, I was surprised by the construction of the building. When I looked down the hall I saw several rooms with microphones in them, but I needed to go upstairs to see the control room: the space with the recording equipment and the mixing console. In the SSE-Noord control room,

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