Blogging Assignment 2: Tortoise tales.

Hello everyone!

For my 2nd blogging assignment, I decided to be more daring, and listen to a piece of work that is more experimental and different. I chanced upon La Monte Young's Pre-Tortoise Dream Music (ctrl click to go to link!) while doing some search. What an interesting title! Then I started listening to it. And immediately, the first thing that came to my mind was WHAT IS THIS?! Is this music? How am I going to analyse this at all?!

Before I continued, I also asked myself if this video is authentic. (I asked this because I found a video under the title of another Young's work, but is in fact some nonsensical experiment some people were toying around with.) I suppose this is, because there are also a few other authentic recordings of Young's works that are available by the same person who uploaded this.

First listen
There is a drone that is very apparent throughout the whole piece. And probably because of this drone, I find that this piece actually sounds like Indian music to me. However, the difference is that there is no raga or melody that I can hear. Hehh. In terms of harmony, it doesn't really sound dissonant, but I must say that the tuning is quite interesting. I also couldn't really figure out what instruments or materials were used in this recording, but I could hear stringed instruments though.

Hmmm. So how is music linked to the title of Pre-Tortoise Dream Music? Haha. Perhaps it's very slow-moving?! There are also people who commented that this is very hypnotic. So in a way it's kind of dreamy I suppose..

Anyway, this is my first time REALLY listening to this genre of music and sticking right through till the end. Come to think of it, I know where I have encountered similar sounds before - before the start of a band practice! Where people would attempt to tune their instruments (mind the different frequencies) all at the same time, some playing the tonic, some playing the dominant, and some others just playing some random notes. Imagine the kind of sound and tension created! Yup, quite similar, to me that is. Heh. Somehow, even just finishing this video (slightly over 10 minutes) makes my head feel tight and uncomfortable. Honestly, I was quite glad when the recording ending. The immediate silence that came after that was very welcoming.

Hopefully when I return with more information about this piece in the next entry I would have a changed opinion. -optimistic-

P.S. I thought I was seriously getting faint and dizzy from an overdose of such music cos I felt some shaking. But my sis just told me that she felt some tremors too! An earthquake somewhere? Oh no.