To Music or Not To Music: Bending One’s Ear is the Question
Music is defined as the art of arranging sounds in time so as to produce a continuous, unified, and evocative composition, as through melody, harmony, rhythm, and timbre. Noise, however, is (defined as sound or a sound that is loud, unpleasant, unexpected, or undesired. Somewhere along the way we decided as did Webster’s Dictionary) that music is O.K. and noise is bad. Noise was labeled the “bad seed”, the disobedient stepchild, the annoying colleague, or the wilted rose. It became unpleasant and unwanted. Music, on the other hand, became the “lullabies of the Gods”, the sweet whistling of the birds in the trees, the discipline that made Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Stravinsky luminaries in the modern world, or the blossoming calla lily.
It’s funny to read these definitions because the Bible calls on the followers of God (in Psalm 100) to make a “Joyful noise unto the Lord”, yet we define noise as unpleasant and unwelcome. I’m not sure if the noises that felled the walls of Jericho were unpleasant or not, but it’s so interesting to consider the juxtaposition of noise and music (medieval trumpets actually) in that, or any, context. Even odder is that fact that the Psalm calling for a joyful noise is actually a song that is to be set to music. Now noise and music are combined in context and in craft. When is noise music and when is music noise? That is the question. With that in mind let’s see how Avant Garde musicians produce their unique brands of music.
Circuit Benders use non-musical electronic equipment and their circuitry to produce random sounds that they can then arrange into “musical” compositions. They work in basements and workshops crafting something out of what most people would consider nothing. What’s interesting is that at its root circuit bending is nothing more than incessant beeping of a broken cell phone or the hum of some sort of broken down microwave, but when circuit benders hear these sounds they can imagine a multitude of compositions based solely of the beeping “noise” or the humming “noise” that they can get from bending circuits.
Imagine taking any number of random sounds that are heard in the average home, recording them and then looping them into a composition. Would that be considered “musical”? Would folks in the neighborhood consider that “art”? It’s an interesting thought that we all have artistic capacity within us. Take the first revolutionary benders of sound.
Mongolian throat singers have lived for centuries in the hills of Outer Mongolia, most notably Tuva, practicing the ancient art of throat singing or “overtone singing”. These men are able to force their vocal cords to produce more than one note at the same time and, in the process, produce something that sounds both ancient and “Avant Garde” at the same time. Modern rock bands have studied and used these throat singing techniques in their music and sell millions of albums, yet someone might travel to Mongolia, hear this music, be stirred emotionally and not know why. The sounds just bring out a feeling in us that we can’t explain.
David Teie, a Cellist with the National Symphony Orchestra, has been studying Tamarin Monkeys and their behavior based on what music is played to them. He too has discovered something that is ancient and “Avant Garde”. The Tamarins don’t respond at all to music that was written for human ears, but when Teie composed music that was based on the sounds and rhythms of the monkeys themselves Teie could take the “monkey sounds” and arrange them as we normally arrange music for humans and then raise it to an ultra-high pitch level so the Monkeys could hear it clearly. As soon as he put the sounds in the Monkey’s range they became remarkably calm. Amazingly, the sounds that the monkeys make when they are feeling calm are much different than sounds you or I would make in that same situation. So, even though it is counter-intuitive to squeak and squawk when we feel comfortable, to the monkeys it is natural.
Historically we could make the same claim about the medieval trumpets that Joshua used to fight the battle of Jericho. Today we imagine the music of battle to be majestic and broad (just think of your favorite war movie or a movie like “Ben Hur”), yet the sound of a medieval trumpet could best be described as a “fog horn” like drawl. The sound is that of a “thing” (as most people wouldn’t consider a fog horn a musical instrument) but in those times that was music.
The Anti-Music movement aimed to go back to using “noise” and performance art to produce emotional responses in the audience. Imagine someone coming out on stage and sawing a Saxophone in half with a chainsaw. The reactions could range anywhere from applause to disgust, and the Avant Garde movement thrives on that dichotomy of emotions. When there is a crying woman sitting next to a laughing man the artist has touched everyone in a different way, with a different emotion.
Now we seem like we’ve come full circle. “Turn down that infernal noise!” is shouted often in homes all over the world to teenagers with blaring music. As much as we hate to admit it, they are listening to music. We even acknowledge it as music. Genetically, it’s as if we have a more historical view of music within us and we just don’t know it. We recognize internally that all noises are musical in some way. If so, then we never really went “full circle”: We just went home.
So many people have told themselves that they could get up on stage and scream into a microphone like the loud rock band on stage. The unfortunate reality for Avant Garde musicians is that they will always have detractors. One might think a better reaction to something that isn’t “normal” is “Man, I couldn’t do that!” It’s very hard to do something in today’s world that was made for yesterday’s world.
Even though all of the ancient history of music is built into our DNA we all aren’t gifted with the art of expression. Just think: You hear an alarm go off while you’re in the parking lot. To you, it’s just a loud noise designed to scare away car thieves. To the person right next to you it’s the beginning of a whole new piece of music. To the person next to him it reminds his of the whistle that is used in many Gamalans or African drumming ensembles (ensembles which are thousands of years old.)
Hear the world with new ears. Recognize our human heritage in music. Try to listen to the sounds around you the way one of these composers would. People have described the screaming of 13 children in one house described as if it was “like the ringing of little bells” and others describe their baby’s cries as “the hungry cry” or “the tired cry”. Babies are just meeting their emotional needs by crying their “baby song” and Mother’s are responding to those needs in kind. Mother’s are so perceptive that they can identify these cries when the rest of us think they all sound the same. To us, it’s noise. To a mother is a baby’s song of need.
Imagine all the different emotions that are stirred in when different people hear the same music. Now imagine someone getting those same emotions stirred from some kind of music that other people absolutely hate. That’s how human emotions work– they’re unpredictable. That’s how Avant Garde music works– it’s unpredictable.
The more this topic is explored a line that cannot be crossed doesn’t even seem to exist. It never existed. We’ve always had all this “music” within us. The only line out there is the one in our mind that is filled with our pre-conceived notions about particular types of music and art. Our old definitions for noise and music just don’t apply anymore, and we missed the boat on identifying new types of art and music that are exciting and original and ancient all at the same time. Avant Garde musicians needed a way to evoke more emotions in more people and they came up with “Avant Garde”. The movement grew out of a deep need for release, not because eardrums needed busting. The paradigm shifted to:
Noise = Music= Noise = Music = Noise = Music = Noise = Music = Noise = Music = Noise
It’s a continual cycle that will always be unbroken. Our circuit bending, monkey music, experimental musician friends have already discovered that the circle has and always will be unbroken. They discovered what rests inside them. Perhaps, just perhaps, if we open our ears to what they hear we’ll hear the world come alive with music that we didn’t even notice and now we won’t be clamoring for a car with a new CD player when we can open the window and hear the music that is…everywhere. As we open your ears we’ll bring our children into a new world of understanding in the realm of art and music, where they can appreciate everything and scorn nothing.
That will be a new day in the world, one without judgment– only art, only expression, only passion-filled-emotional artistry. A day where we recognize that we all have the music of the past within us, and appreciate those who are still expressing it after thousands of years on this planet is a day that means we all experience life with more joy. The term Avant Garde goes out of style. We started with the Avant Garde and we’ll end with it too.
>Written by d/visible contributor Patton Hunnicutt.
Images Provided by: Flickr.com
