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  Listening Review

  "Archimedes, Pt. 1" James Dashow (2008)
  
  
  This is the second movement from Dashow's planetarium opera Archimedes, an electroacoustic compositions for surround-sound and stereo which premiered in 2000. This is a well balanced display of artisanship from an individual whose influence on digital audio/sound synthesis is beyond reproach. Liquid melting worlds collide in this fantastic cosmic journey, bringing to mind a Kubrickesque landscape of strange other-worldly endeavors. It offers an escape into the presence of a cybernetic nowness, provoking an abode of 'hereness' that takes place within the sonorities of this piece. This journey deep into an unknown world of sonic oddities provokes an attentive stillness through its dense textural elements. There is a harmonious equilibrium between active and passive happenings in this piece and on display is an impressive range of contrasting sound objects within the overall sonic palette. A completely digitized soundscape far removed from 'the sound of human activity' fully aligned with the Shaefferian musical language.
  
  ex 1 (0:10 - 0:30) Vertical interweaving of the frequency spectrum; the bands have specific selection and exhibit organizational process 
  ex 2 (1:30 - 2:00) Rhythmic narrative of short and long durations, repeated and sustained textures, and foreground to background interplay
  ex 3 (2:00 - 2:35) Demonstration of dynamic variance with utilization of full frequency range
  
  
  
  Reading Review
  
  Barthes - The Grain of the Voice (1972)
  The linguistic weakness and ineffective position to interpret music. At the foreground of language's representation of music is the adjective; a descriptive quality of the likeness of the music but not that which defines it's true essence or reveals the actuality of music. The 'image-repetoire' approach to the linguistic exacting of music is a contrary notion due to the optical association of music' non-visual nature, using image based language moves music away from a sonic existence and conforms it into an ocular domain. Physicality o=and the body of the performer inside the music in the 'grain.' Pheno-song vs geno-song (phenome and genome?) Offers the concept of signify; identifiable characteristics, aesthetic properties and 'personality' displayed by a happening.
  
  Nancy - Listening (2007)
  Enters immediately into a discourse on the inability of the philosopher to truly 'listen' as opposed to 'hear.' At first, here is no definition provided for either the term 'listen' or 'hear', so without the concrete understanding of the terminology the reader's subjectivity of definition forbids the author's intention. Pages later there is finally some approximation of definition provided, but this chronology of literary organization seems backwards. "The sonorous appears and fades away into its permanence" - a very nostalgic remedy to the ephemeral nature of sound; a romantic's desperation to contain the fleeting existence of the audible and glorying the death of the elevated sensory experience. Strictly male gendered language in the writing (his, him, he, himself, etc.) There is so much meaning lost in the French to English translation that the text is reading, like some kind of approximation or 'attempt', it seems to be reading as a conversion desperately attempting to be 'accurate' to the original version. 
  
  Chion - Three Modes of Listening (1993)
  Casual, semantic and reduce listening modes and there function and purpose. Provides a framework to apply these types of listings to the various situations that they call for. Makes the listener more conscious of the listening experience by expounding upon the passive and active listening process.
  
  Oliveros - Deep Listening (2005)
  Biographical description of Oliveros' background in music and the life events that shaped her path of conception towards deep listening. The sounds of the natural landscape where her first inspiration and the urban destruction of those soundscapes led to a frustration that motivated Oliveros towards her unique musical identity. Not only does Oliveros focus on the musical, active listening, but this writing attempts to transform the mundane experience of living into an exercise in hearing. Some 'orientalism' vibes going on here; exotic mystique of the 'East', uncovering secret knowledge hidden from the West, metaphysical realizations, etc. "Deep listening...does not come from any religious context" and then proceeds to correlate it to Buddhism and claims that 'deep listening is a form of meditation'; this superficial masking is an attempt at making deep listening 'secular passing.' "Animals are deep listeners", I oppose this stance and would argue that they are shallow listeners. 
  
  Oliveros - Auralizing the Sonosphere (2011)
  sonosphere (n.): sonic envelope of the earth; physical domain that encompasses the human auricular experience. Does Oliveros have experience with hallucinogenics? Spiritual manifesto about the sonic oneness of the world and our interconnectedness through sound. Offers a list of sound based terminology as a substitute to the visual dominance of language.
  
  McCartney - How Am I To Listen To You? (2016)
  Drawing one's listening into the present moment and being attentive to the limitlessness of sonic potentiality. Soundwalking Project - the integration of walking and listening as a combined activity leading to a heightened experience. Love as a theoretical model for soundwalking biases those who are emotionally privileged and excludes people who identify as 'loveless.' The aim is a movement towards understanding and away from objectifying; this choice of language using 'object' biases the visual operations and reflects the desire to include more auditory language when speaking of music 
  
  Rodgers - Towards a Feminist Historiography of Electronic Music (2012)
  Militarized language of electronic music and the terminology used that uses imagery of war; 'high-tech combat', 'symbols of violent confrontation and domination' - these correlations to music seem slightly manipulated to substantiate Roger's position. "Electronic sounds might not be so compelling were it not for their associations with technologies of war" - reducing the human fascination with electronic sounds to a military fetish. Making space for female composers within the same domain as their male counterparts as a genuine inclusion and not simply a 'tokenistic representation.' The female laborers in factories and other technical production facilities has been largely overlooked and uncredited. The statistical scanticity of female presence in the electronic music world advances the necessity to highlight their importance all the more.
  
  Huron - Sweet Anticipation (2006)
  Abridge description of the two physical process pathways (slow and fast response) involved in cognitive signals. Heighten arousal and attention responses are biological defense mechanisms are goal-oriented operations aimed at physical survival and threat management. "The phenomenon of “surprise” represents a failure of expectation" - one's inability to predict events correctly displays a lack of familiarity to situations and assessment ineptitude, but this provides a new learning opportunity and, so long as death is not the result of the surprise, the individual will biologically gain from the experience. Suppression of a positive predictive outcome in favor of a more negatively biased one will decrease the intensity of a potential negative outcome, resulting in a compressed contrastive valence. The three core emotional responses to surprises are laughter, awe, and frisson. If laughter acts as a mechanism to diminish fear, can an individual refrain the expulsion to absorb it as a tool for bravery?
  
  Becker - Deep Listeners (2004)
  Investigates James' theory that physiological arousal proceeds the emotional response, rather than the common assumption that our emotions trigger a physiological response. Feeling is a private phenomenon while emotion is a social signaling. The body is the host organism to emotions and their physical displays of effectuation provide the essence of their existence. Although musical emotions mimic those of the common physiological capacity, they operate outside of the definitions of biological emotions and cannot be approached in the same manner. Analysis of ras (color, juice, essence) in classical Indian music, although the label 'theory' is a very clinically reductive Eurological branding and the various dialogues surrounding this subject that I took part in during my time in India diverge from the qualitative assessment of this text.
  
  JAMS - What If Music Could Be Seen? (2021)
  The developments of software analysis enables a more involved process of dissection and investigation into recorded sound. Visual media as a tool for theoretical assessment provides a different type of stimulus and with the various visual representations of sound lead to new paths of exploration. Efficiently condenses overview of Sonic Visualizer capabilities that detail the various ways this software program is useful for analysis, theoretical investigations and sonic interpretation.