Alvin Lucier
Alvin Lucier (May 14, 1931 - December 1, 2021) was an American composer of music and sound installations exploring acoustic phenomena, especially resonance, as well as a former member of the Sonic Arts Union along with Robert Ashley, David Behrman, and Gordon Mumma.
As a self-acknowledged composer of experimental music, Lucier's compositions sometimes deal with elements of indeterminacy. Much of his work is heavily informed by science, revolving around the physical properties of sound itself: resonance of spaces Read Full BioAlvin Lucier (May 14, 1931 - December 1, 2021) was an American composer of music and sound installations exploring acoustic phenomena, especially resonance, as well as a former member of the Sonic Arts Union along with Robert Ashley, David Behrman, and Gordon Mumma.
As a self-acknowledged composer of experimental music, Lucier's compositions sometimes deal with elements of indeterminacy. Much of his work is heavily informed by science, revolving around the physical properties of sound itself: resonance of spaces, phase interference between closely-tuned pitches, and the transmission of sound through physical media.
Lucier was born in Nashua, New Hampshire and studied at Yale University and Brandeis University and spent two years in Rome on a Fulbright Fellowship.
His pieces include Music On A Long Thin Wire in which a piano wire is strung across a room with magnets on either end, producing changing overtones and sounds, Crossings, in which tones played across a steadily rising sine wave produce interference beats, Still and Moving Lines of Silence in Families of Hyperbolas in which the interference tones between sine waves create "troughs" and "valleys" of sound and silence, Music For Solo Performer, the first piece to use brain waves to produce sound, and Clocker, which uses biofeedback and reverberation.
As a self-acknowledged composer of experimental music, Lucier's compositions sometimes deal with elements of indeterminacy. Much of his work is heavily informed by science, revolving around the physical properties of sound itself: resonance of spaces Read Full BioAlvin Lucier (May 14, 1931 - December 1, 2021) was an American composer of music and sound installations exploring acoustic phenomena, especially resonance, as well as a former member of the Sonic Arts Union along with Robert Ashley, David Behrman, and Gordon Mumma.
As a self-acknowledged composer of experimental music, Lucier's compositions sometimes deal with elements of indeterminacy. Much of his work is heavily informed by science, revolving around the physical properties of sound itself: resonance of spaces, phase interference between closely-tuned pitches, and the transmission of sound through physical media.
Lucier was born in Nashua, New Hampshire and studied at Yale University and Brandeis University and spent two years in Rome on a Fulbright Fellowship.
His pieces include Music On A Long Thin Wire in which a piano wire is strung across a room with magnets on either end, producing changing overtones and sounds, Crossings, in which tones played across a steadily rising sine wave produce interference beats, Still and Moving Lines of Silence in Families of Hyperbolas in which the interference tones between sine waves create "troughs" and "valleys" of sound and silence, Music For Solo Performer, the first piece to use brain waves to produce sound, and Clocker, which uses biofeedback and reverberation.
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I Am Sitting In A Room
Alvin Lucier Lyrics
I am sitting in a room different from the one you are in now. I am recording the sound of my speaking voice and I am going to play it back into the room again and again until the resonant frequencies of the room reinforce themselves so that any semblance of my speech, with perhaps the exception of rhythm, is destroyed. What you will hear, then, are the natural resonant frequencies of the room articulated by speech. I regard this activity not so much as a demonstration of a physical fact, but more as a way to smooth out any irregularities my speech might have.
Contributed by Parker P. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
To comment on specific lyrics, highlight them
yaj126
Tracklist:
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06:46 - 6
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REPLY
Snowdenbleep
Hey there! Im a recording engineer and might be able to differentiate this a little bit further. Mike is absolutely right!
There are three main elements in analysing the result of this recording: 1. microphone and speaker system freuency response. 2. the acoustic properties of the room and 3. the recording medium. These elements are all interacting with eachother.
The order of impact is 1: the acousics, 2 the recording medium (harmonic distortion and compression from tape) 3. the microphone and speaker (comparatively neutral).
The main effect we are hearing is the acousic properties of the room he is recording in. The different decay times of different frequencies are specific to the geometry and materials of the walls.
This room has a low resonant frequency (louder and longer decay time) of 163 herz and 320 herz, as well as many other partial (quieter) frequencies. This high fundamental suggests the room was quite small. As you record, these louder frequencies essentially begin feeding back.
The second most improtant variabke is the recording medium. It sounds to me like tape. This is important because tape does not allow for much dynamic room and begins to distort when the dynamic range is used up. Thus as the amplitude growd through repetition the distortion also created aditional harmonic content with each repetition. This also introduces hiss into the recording with each pass. Edit: the tape distortion is a huge part of the sound we here here, especially at the end. Tape also applies a type of "compression" which is very desirable in music. As the fumdamental gets louder the other frequencies are attenuated, and pop back to fill the hole as the fundamental drops out. This creates a lot of movement and excitement. A flatter digital system would not sound neary as exciting unless you deliberately and progressively added harmonic distortion and compression :)
Microphone and speaker frequency response have a negligable impat over the course of many repetitions compared to thebfirst two variables. Given that the mic and speaker used are able to represent all audible frequencies to a lesser or greater degree, the same resonant frequencies would have been produced no matter what brand or type of mic or speaker was used. Incidentally the same resonanant frequencies would have been produced independant of the origional source (replacing Alvins voice with an accordion or banging on a table), provided it contained a certain ammount of the relevant frequencies to get the feedback going.
Dwarf Angel
Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do,
I’m half crazy, All for the love of you,
It won’t be a stylish marriage,
I haven’t got a carriage,
But you’ll look sweet, up on the seat
Of a bicycle built for two!
Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do,
I’m half crazy, All for the love of you,
It won’t be a stylish marriage,
I haven’t got a carriage,
But you’ll look sweet, up on the seat
Of a bicycle built for two!
Ben Buckley Productions
"I am sitting in a room different from the one you are in now. I am recording the sound of my speaking voice, and I am going to play it back into the room again and again, until the resonant frequencies of the room reinforce themselves, so that any semblance of my speech, with perhaps the exception of rhythm, is destroyed. What you will hear, then, are the natural resonant frequencies of the room, articulated by speech. I regard this activity not so much as a demonstration of a physical fact, but more as a way to smooth out any irregularities my speech might have." <- My favourite quote from the video.
Sebastian Duarte
@Alexander Bayramov yo these lyrics are great
yaj126
Tracklist:
00:00 - 1
01:21 - 2
02:42 - 3
04:04 - 4
05:24 - 5
06:46 - 6
08:08 - 7
09:31 - 8
10:54 - 9
12:18 - 10
13:42 - 11
15:05 - 12
16:28 - 13
17:51 - 14
19:14 - 15
20:37 - 16
22:01 - 17
23:25 - 18
24:50 - 19
26:16 - 20
27:41 - 21
29:06 - 22
30:32 - 23
31:58 - 24
33:24 - 25
34:51 - 26
36:18 - 27
37:45 - 28
39:13 - 29
40:41 - 30
42:09 - 31
43:37 - 32
Show less
REPLY
470K
Many big thankings.
Harlan Rosen
THANK YOU
GoodSocks Productions
This comment should be pinned
Tomislav B.
It's getting dim
ghw.
alright
Neža Kokalj
I once listened to this whole thing the night before a math exam before studying at all and it was about 1:30 am and I got a D on that exam but at least I enjoyed those 45 minutes.
Montague Cardwell-Jacobs
@Abhishek Tiwari I have two exams tomorrow!! Why do we all end up here...