AMBIENT MUSIC ( Sound & Space ) 1 1 Today Brief look at how sound interacts with physical spaces. A look back at music that is not the primary focal point. (background music) Furniture Music, Muzak, ambient music, current music that draws on ambient traditions The work and legacy of Brian Eno (David Bowie tangent) Think about music itself as a technology. Midterm Questions 2 I AM SITTING IN A ROOM (1970) ALVIN LUCIER 3 I am sitting in a room different from the one you are in now. I am recording the sound of my speaking voice and I am going to play it back into the room again and again until the resonant frequencies of the room reinforce themselves so that any semblance of my speech, with perhaps the exception of rhythm, is destroyed. What you will hear, then, are the natural resonant frequencies of the room articulated by speech. I regard this activity not so much as a demonstration of a physical fact, but more as a way to smooth out any irregularities my speech might have. 4 I AM SITTING IN A ROOM (1970) ALVIN LUCIER plays at the limits of acoustics and perception. Lucier’s words are recorded, played back into the room and rerecorded, over and over again, until the resonant frequencies of the room completely refgure the words as sound. A room is a flter, sound is infuenced by space. 5 Room Acoustics DIFFRACTION - Long waves will bend around objects. ABSORPTION <---> REFLECTION Hard surfaces refect, soft surfaces absorb. Short wavelengths become trapped in soft material - carpets, drapes, etc. Refected sound is REVERBERATION, a series of echoes, and reverberation time depends on the size and material of the space 6 Room Resonance Destructive Interference (aka Phase Cancellation): Two waves out of phase, the peaks and troughs summed together will cancel each other out. Constructive Interference: Two waves in phase, peaks and troughs line up - the resultant wave will have twice the amplitude. 7 Resonance Resonance is also found in the "body" of musical instruments and in the voice. resonating sound waves within a guitar 8 Reverberation Natural - refections caused by the resonant qualities of a space Artifcial - simulated digitally or through an analog system 9 Refections and Reverberation Green = Direct Sound Red = Early Refections (15 ms.) Blue = Secondary Refections 10 Studio Treatment for Room Resonance 11 A History of Background Music 12 France, Turn of the Century Claude Debussy (left) & Erik Satie (right) Counterpoint to the drama of the late romantic period Music as an environment rather than a dramatic structure moving without a specifc destination Move towards impressions Claude Debussy (left) & Erik Satie (right) Counterpoint to the drama of the late romantic period Music as an environment rather than a dramatic structure moving without a specifc destination ERIK SATIE Composer, preferred phonometrician Dada Listen:Listen: GnossienneGymnopédie No. No.1 3 - Lent (1893) Gnossienneswithout a rigid are time without structure time signatures— free time. or bar lines, free time. 15 ERIK SATIE Composer, preferred phonometrician Dada Furniture Music: not a centerpiece, but a backdrop Listen: Furniture Music, Part 2: Tapestry of Wrought Iron: for the arrival of the guests (Grand Entrance) (1917) 16 MUZAK LLC A company that created, arranged and sold background music Became prominent in the 1930s, was still popular through the 60s, and still exists today! (bought by Mood Media) Would ‘score’ the workday in an effort to maintain productivity (a technique it called "Stimulus Progression") Company had it’s own orchestra as of 2010, Muzak distributes 3 million commercially available original artist songs, over a 100 channels and types of programming JOHN CAGE 4’33” “[it is] more possible to live affrmatively if you fnd the sound of the environment beautiful.” Listen: Sonatas for Prepared Piano LA MONTE YOUNG Dreamhouse Standing waves and static drone textures 18 19 WENDY CARLOS Sonic Seasonings Mixed feld recordings with modular synthesizers to create one of the frst undoubtedly ‘ambient’ records. LAURIE SPIEGEL Early experiments with computers driving synthesizers, creating long works focus on texture 20 Brian Eno Studied experimental and conceptual art. Started using tape recorders to create sound art. 1969: Joined Cornelius Cardew’s Scratch Orchestra 1972: played in the glitter rock band Roxy Music as their engineer, eventually playing synthesizer. Tired of the commercial music scene, he left the band in 1973 and created dozens of solo and collaborative albums (David Bowie, David Byrne, John Cale, Talking Heads, U2, etc). He is known as a visionary record producer, adding his unique sound and experimental approach to popular music. 21 Discreet Music (1975) Eno began his exploration of ambient music with Discreet Music (1975), but his real breakthrough was with 1978‘s Ambient I: Music For Airports. Excerpt from Discreet Music 22 MUSIC FOR AIRPORTS (1978) Piano, arp, reverb... recorded musicians separately, cut them at random, looped them and mixed them together. Listening: Brian Eno, “1/2,” Ambient 1: Music for Airports, 1978 "Ambient music must be able to accommodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular: it must be as ignorable as it is interesting." - Eno 23 OBLIQUE STRATEGIES Infuenced by Cage, Eno became interested in “Chance Operations” Oblique Strategies are aphorisms on cards that are pulled up at random during recording sessions to "check the path of least resistance in the studio." Eno published a set of 113 cards (with a painter friend). Participants in studio must follow the card’s advice. Gets everyone in the studio away from obsessing about the particulars and details and gets them working on the level of concept. Examples: Honor thy error as a hidden intention Reverse Go Outside. Shut the door Emphasize faws Once the search is in progress, something will be found Take a break Regard your limitations as secret strengths Producer as Artist Eno thinks of himself as a technician rather than musician. He has been brought in as a full artistic collaborator and producer for bands including Genesis (Lamb Lies Down on Broadway), Devo, Talking Heads (and later David Byrne), Laurie Anderson, U2, Coldplay, and Grace Jones. Excerpt from “A Secret Life” from Eno and Byrne’s My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (1981) 25 DAVID BOWIE In the late sixties, Bowie began to make experimental works with tape collage He created the stage character Ziggy Stardust in 1972, exploring themes of alienation, gender, space travel and artifcial intelligence. Over the course of his career, Bowie moved between styles and infuences, including rock, ambient, disco, avant garde, glam and punk inspired by the Velvet Underground, Kraftwerk, Steve Reich, and of course, Eno His frst hit was Space Oddity in 1969... 26 27 ZIGGY STARDUST performance persona in the early-mid 70s Ziggy made Bowie a pop culture icon Listen: Starman from the 1972 Album Ziggy Stardust 28 The Berlin Trilogy (1977-79) In 1977, Bowie went to Berlin to kick a drug addiction while there he made three infuential albums with Brian Eno: Low (1977) - Heroes (1977) - Lodger (1979) Side B of “Low” contained primarily long electronic tracks without vocals. Excerpt from Low’s “Subterraneans” 29 Eno’s Ideas about Ambient Music Eno contrasts canned music (or “muzak”), which tries to cover up surrounding sounds, with ambient music, which is intended to enhance the sounds of the environment. Canned background music (Muzak) Ambient Music Blankets with sound, covers up the space vs. Invites you into the space, incorporates Strips away all sense of doubt and uncertainty Mysterious, uncertain (and thus genuine interest) Brightens the environment, stimulating Induces calm and a space to think so, what is ambient music? and what does it have to do with music technology? 31 Ambient Music Recap Ambient Music often focuses on the timbre, changes in the quality of the sound rather than the traditional focus of rhythm, melody and harmony. Often evocative of a “place,” “atmosphere,” “visual” or “environment.” “Not music from the environment but music for the environment” - Eno It’s typically less-dramatic, and often non-linear, without clear directionality. It has roots in the work of John Cage, Wendy Carlos, La Monte Young and the “minimalist” composers. It spans aesthetics ranging from Sound Art to Dance Music matured as a genre through the work and writing of Brian Eno 32.