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Five Icons Contemplate the Meaning of Sound and Music
Most artists are content to play the notes, but there's a handful of composers and musicians who work at the level of sound itself, turning meaning, finding nuance, charting new hitherto unheard directions in music through a contemplation of the meaning of sound itself. In a series of five non-narrative short features, four composers and one music movement grapple with sound from its spiritual to its theoretical dimensions. The artists include John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Brian Eno, Keith Jarrett and in a Minimalist Meditation, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Philip Glass, La Monte Young and John Adams.
The five segments of Thoughts in Sound were originally produced for the PRI program Echoes. As part of PRX’s Reversioning Project and with support from The Grammy Foundation, producer John Diliberto has re-produced and updated the five features, and written and produced half-hour and one-hour versions.
While working on this project, John got to thinking about how far the influence of these five icons has spread. He's charted it in an article and more interviews, Avant to Pop.
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Episode #1 Brian Eno: Architect of Ambience Brian Eno has become a defining figure in music over the last three decades. Since his days with Roxy Music in the early 1970s, he's been rock's leading conceptualist, drawing upon the avant-garde traditions of John Cage, along with minimalism and electronic music. But he applies their concepts to the most popular music with his productions of U2, Paul Simon, Talking Heads, David Bowie and Coldplay. His ambient music series has continued to resonate through the last three decades. listen |
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Episode #2 John Cage: Imaginary Landscapes Few contemporary composers had the influence of John Cage. From experimental music to minimalism, Brian Eno to George Winston, echoes of John Cage continue to resound to this day, more than 6 decades after his "Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano" were first published. John Cage was a conceptualist of sound who turned even silence into music as he did with his famous piece, "4:33". John cage died from a stroke in August of 1992. But we hear his thoughts in sound from a 1987 interview. listen |
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Episode #3 A Minimalist Meditation Cyclical music has ancient roots and many modern manifestations. The trance music of Moroccan Sufis and the meditations of Tibet are born in repeating cycles. In the 1960s, ancient mantra met modern music in the form of minimalism. Four of the early pioneers of this music were La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich and Philip Glass. Along with one of their disciples, John Adams, we'll hear their often conflicting and critical thoughts in sound with a Minimalist Meditation. listen |
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Episode #4 Keith Jarrett: Piano Primitive In the 1970s the piano and Keith Jarrett were synonymous. His solo piano albums like The Köln Concert established his reputation for free-form, melodic improvisational flights. Since then he's recorded with orchestras, clavichords, his Standards Trio, and even a CD of over-dubbed impressions for flutes and hand drums called Spirit. Despite being the only purely acoustic musician in this series, Keith Jarrett reveals a music vision based in the inner vibrations of sound. listen |
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Episode #5 Karlheinz Stockhausen: Composing for the Post-Apocalypse Karlheinz Stockhausen died in the midst of our production of his Thoughts in Sound segment. His passing in December 2007 only served to highlight the often forgotten impact of this German music titan. Minimalist composer Philip Glass once referred to Karlheinz Stockhausen's music as "neurotic" but the German icon's adherents have included The Beatles (Stockhausen is pictured on the cover of Sgt. Pepper), Pink Floyd, The Grateful Dead, Miles Davis and Frank Zappa. Like John Cage, he is as much a philosopher as a composer, writing music for what he called the Post-Apocalypse. He ran into some trouble in 2001 when he called the world trade center bombings "Lucifer's greatest work of art." When you hear Karlheinz Stockhausen's thoughts in sound from this rare 1982 interview, you might understand why he said that. listen |
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