Love Supreme (2nd)

I decided to write a second time on A Love Supreme after reading the book because I realized how wrong my "interpretation" was. Coltrane dedicated his work to the Lord, a possibility that I completely overlooked. So I was very wrong. However, this got me pondering a different question - how important is intent in the arts? No one really knows the message Da Vinci was trying to convey through the Mona Lisa, but part of a reason for the painting's fame is simply because we don't know his intention. I think one of art's qualities that makes it so special is that its meaning is abstract. Physics formulas and economic principles aren't open to interpretation, but art definately is. So, even though my take on A Love Supreme was completely different from Coltrane's message, I think it still holds some validity as an interpretation.

A Love Supreme

As a continuation of the listening exercise I did with Acknowledgement (the first part of A Love Supreme), I listened to all of A Love Supreme and realized that perhaps Coltrane is trying to tell a story with his four works. The first clue is their respective titles - Acknowledgement, Resolution, Pursuance, and Psalm. Deeper than that, each individual piece seems to tell its own story, revolving around its title. The most obvious of these is Pursuance, which is the fastest paced song of the 4 and immediately gave me the image of someone pursuing someone else. It is filled with ups and downs and varying tempo, but maintains a fairly frantic pace most of the time, as any good chase song should and even slows down at the end to symbolize a successful pursuit. Likewise, Acknowledgement and Resolution are both slower and more thoughtful, as they represent the introspective emotions and actions that accompany love. However, most of Psalm is also slowly paced, which seemed odd at first. Upon further examination, though, it makes sense as it symbolizes a break-up or devorce from his love, as the song has a definate sad mood to it. Overall, this could just be an incorrect interpretation but I think I found a storyline that Coltrane may have been trying to convey.

Note: this was written before reading the book

Listening

I decided to focus on the listening aspect of music. Much like the exercise where I sat outside and didn't talk, I put on the first part of Love Supreme, closed my eyes, and made sure there were no other sounds. My goal was to really hear the music. At first, it was tough to pick out the instruments, but it quickly became easy and a short while later I felt like I was in the music. I could easily pick out each instruments and concentrate on its own rhythm. Cooler still, based on the pitch of the instrument I was listening to, I could perceive the other sounds spacially - when concentraing on the bass, for example, I felt that the tenor sax was somehow above me. It's an odd phenomenon to describe, but that is exactly how I felt. Each part became magnified when I'd focus on it but would fade into the background when I wasn't. I realized how much was going on and couldn't believe I had been almost literally not hearing all that went on in the song. Despite the limited number of instruments, so many things are happening at any moment of the song that it is impossible to hear all of them the first time through. Overall, truly listening to Coltrane's masterpiece was an awesome experience and one I intend to do again.

Recording Technology

Over the past 50 years, as jazz artists have risen to prominence and then slowly declined, recording technology has changed the way we hear and remember those artists. When Monk first became popular, layering technology was not really around. On many of Monk's and Ellington's pieces, one can hear the flatness of the music - there is no depth to the sound and the quality is very poor. This is obviously because the technology to make the music crisper and layer was not around back then. With more recent songs, the sound is much clearer and one can tell that the individual insturments were recorded seperately and then put together. They are easier to pick out and seperate from one another.

One pecularity we discussed in class was why certain bands today choose to go for the "garage band" sound. That is, despite the plethora of technology available, they choose to record at a low quality. I don't completely agree with the conclusion the class came too - that artists do it to make their music sound more authentic and "real." I think this is only partially the answer, and that in reality the artists don't have much choice. Since their chord progressions and general sound is so pedestrian and average that recording it in high quality would not be interesting. Most "garage bands" don't have a lot of originality and complexity in their songs and stick to the same rock chord progressions. Thus, recording low quality blends the various instruments together better and allows for an unoriginal piece to sound more interesting. I don't know if they do this conciously, but I think this is a fairly big reason.

Friday the 13th

I chose to listen to this song at first because it's interesting name. However, after listening to it I realized that it was a pretty good piece, so here I am writing about it. It is fairly upbeat throughout and is fairly length, clocking in at 9 and a half minutes. Monk opens the song in his signature style with a short, melodious piano solo. The sax copies the solo rift and repeats it at various points throughout the song, as if it is the piece's melody. The piano and bass comp for a short while until the song proceeds into the sax solo. The solo is very light and quick-paced. Monk follows with a solo of his own. As usual, he does more with space and silence rather than filling the sound with rapid succesion of piano notes. Towars the end, the sax comes back in and comps fairly well. The sax has another minute-long solo, and then the song comes to a close.

White Christmas

I knew I had to hear (and write) about this song from the moment I saw it on the list of mp3s because I love jazz covers of other songs. Furthermore, Parker's rendition of one of my favorite Christmas carols was something I didn't want to miss. And it didn't dissapoint. As I partially expected, the song isn't just White Christmas, but a medly of christmas carols with Parker's improvisation thrown in. The song begins with a verse of White Christmas but then breaks off and plays little portions of many carols. In between, Parker improvises scales that help the songs string together seamlessly.

Cotton Tail

This lively piece by Duke Ellington is typical of his upbeat, big-band style. With a drum keeping a steady beat, the song is characterized by the tenor sax and other wind instruments. The sax is at the forefront nearly the entire songs and often does scales, though a lower sax has a solo towards the beginning of the song. The song maintains an upbeat rhythm throughout, enhanced greatly by the rolling melody of the sax and steady beat of the drum. The bass also underscores the beat. Though there are many instruments playing, they blend together well and sound very cohesive. Without listening closely, I found it hard to pick out the individual instruments, and it was even difficult once a I tried. This can be attributed to the plethora of instruments that play in the background, so I "hear" them, but I don't really hear them. Overall, I like the song because it is swift and upbeat. In fact, it borders on swing, which may have been a criticism from jazz fundamentalists of his day. Regardless, swing or jazz, it is a well crafted piece.

Africa (Coltrane)

Though many students seemed to have difficulties creating a visual space of Coltrane’s “Africa,” I found the task much easier than I expected it to be. On the whole, I don’t consider myself a very artistic or creative person. However, on this occasion, once I sat down with the song and really thought about what it brought to mind, the ideas flowed like a river.

The first part of the assignment, choosing a physical lay out for the project, ended up being the toughest. Initially, I figured I would paste words and pictures on a single sheet of paper, but that seemed hackneyed, especially once I got to class and found that that was what most people had done. I realized my original set-up was too small and lacked color. So, I used a large sheet of green paper because green was the color that came to mind when visualizing the song as a whole, which was probably because it brought to mind images of forests and plains. As I began brainstorming for images to paste on the paper, I decided that my focus for the song, the two and a half minute drum solo approximately from 10:00 to 12:30, wasn’t a very “green” part of the song. I felt that yellow better conveyed rhythm of the drums and symbolized how it was glaringly different from the rest of the piece. Finally, I stapled both papers to a piece of cardboard to add rigidity because portions of the song radiate strength and courage (especially the parts that are tribal-like), and the paper by itself was not very strong.

Once the design was in place, the pictures and words came naturally. Though many members of the class did otherwise, I left my visual space more free and open than cluttered, representing the nature of the piece. Most of the song is devoid of many instruments playing simultaneously or a quick tempo – Coltrane, much like Monk, makes use of space, silence, and a slow tempo. The piece as a whole brought forth peaceful images to mind. Even the faster tempo portions did not seem vicious – I pictured a resting tiger rather than a roaring lion. I could almost see the vast savannah and luscious forests of Africa. As the song progressed, the images did likewise, moving from a artistic jazz musician to the more natural impressions toward the end of the song.

The one glaring exception was the almost three minute drum solo. At first, it seemed odd because it felt as if it had been needlessly put there. However, after a couple listens, I realized that it served a purpose while I slowly became enamored with it. The deep sound of the drum conveyed strength and quickness, symbolized by the lightning and roaring lion. Most of all, the pulsing beat reminded me primarily of the African tribes and tribal rituals. It conjured up vivid visualizations of the native people’s lifestyle, as Coltrane probably intended. Much as drums did for the tribes, the drum in the song carries the beat and sets a rhythm that creates a mood for the entire piece.

Overall, the interesting juxtaposition of the drums and the rest of the song are, in my mind, the essence of Coltrane’s work. Thus, I put the representations for both parts back-to-back, as they are starkly different and yet inevitably tied together. Though the thought process behind my visual space seems intricate, the ideas flowed very freely, especially after I had a layout in mind. I really enjoyed the experience because it caused me to open my eyes and see a song, as well as myself, in a different light. In the end, I think my surprisingly creative interpretation of the song helped ease the task of creating the visual space.

Sounds of silence part 2

(transcribed from handwritten copy)

So, it's a beautiful spring day, a great time to go out onto College Green and listen to Penn, literally. The second listening exercise was quite an interesting experience. At first, I felt I couldn't really hear anything. Sure I could hear people talking, but that was about it. As I concentrated, I realized I could focus my hearing, eavesdropping on entire conversations quite a distance away from me. Slowly, I let myself relax and unfocus, choosing to hear the sea of voices all around me. My hearing floated above the voices, as odd as that may seem, and I could slowly pick out other sounds. The wind gently brushed the leaves, and the generator atop the hospital provided a grumbling backdrop that was steady and yet went through sonic cycles, growing louder and softer periodically. After concentrating on it, I realized that the generator was actually quite loud and wondered why the noise didn't bother people more than it did. It must be because the kind of sound it makes is not bothersome unless one focuses on it specifically. Overall, I was pleased to find that my hearing has progressed since the first assignment. It took me much less time to become adjusted to the sounds around me and start "playing" with my hearing by focusing and unfocusing it. I was able to pick out sounds much easier and focus on them. I've actually realized this while listening to jazz (and other music as well), I can pick out individual components of the music easier now than at the begininning of the semseter, probably as a result of the class as well as my a capella group, where I do similar exercises to focus on my voice part.