Re: [microsound] memory and melody

[dbuchwald <dagmar.buchwald@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

".--- ..." wrote:

> Hi
>
> ( 02.11.17 12:54 +0100 ) dbuchwald:
> > He wrote a small piece for piano called "Vexations" and his wish was
> > that it should be played 24 hours continuously.
>
> Not quite. The note says [approximately]:
> To play this 840 times, it is advisable to prepare in silence with
> serious immobilities
>
> And the most common interpretation of the 'score' has a 13 beat phrase
> played 4 times, marked in very slow tempo. Doing the math:
> 13 * 4 * 840 = 43680 / 60 = 728 / 60 = 12 hours at 8th note = 60
>
> Comes out about half, but that's still a long time.

The event at which I was lasted 24 hrs, but you are right.

>
>
> > although I spent almost 20 hours of the 24 hours in this room
> > continuously exposed to that piece of music -- I couldn't and cannot
> > remember a thing of it.
>
> It's very chromatic and stubbornly non melodic.

I am not trained in music at all but an avid listener.  So you mean the
piece does not 'contain' a melody.  I think I just took it for granted that
it was a melody (I'm wondering now how the term is defined but that's too
huge a question, I guess) and assumed that "Vexations" was an example for a
'melody' that cannot be remembered.

>
>
> > I have a hunch that Satie wanted to achieve that effect (actually you
> > could call many of his pieces "ambient" although the term didn't exist
> > at his time)
>
> He had the idea of 'furniture music', which is pretty much like ambient
> music [furniture in a more in a utilitarian sense ...].
>
> Satie rocks!

Dagmar

>
>
> --
> \js     ''_"!{+              >"%         @=%
>
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