CircleJerk

This performance explored different forms of musical power and the effect on the audence when contradictory styles are brought together. Previously, my Noise compositions and my classical operatic works had always been written for mutually exclusive demographics. Both manipulate levels of audience attention, arousal and emotion - but through distinctly different menthods. Whilst opera draws of the metaphoric language of music, Noise avoids such traditions and is more alligned to a dramatic environment. By starting the piece in the latter territory it created a frame of reference where the audience felt amidst (and assaulted) by a brutal situation. In the absence of any musical "figure", the Noise created a dangerous "ground" whithin which the listener was located. As soon as Karen Knowles' operatic vocals entered, two things happened: 1. The power of cinematic history was brought to bear on the experience - we were suddenly being told by the classical music how to feel about a situation 2. the position of "figure" was taken back into the music - listeners becoming observers of someone else's violent plight, rather than the victims of it themselves. Whilst there was clear innovation in the fusing of these two genres, it was the identification of the shift from subjective to objective and the listeners' requisite move from fear to empathy which was revelatory for me. significance What is Music - 2nd largest curated Sound Art festival in Australia Research questions: - How (and how significantly) can a position of subjectivity be changed to objectivity when listening to a live piece of music? - How fundamentally does the experience of environmental noise change when operatic vocals are incorporated into the mix? How does the integration of this antithetical element become perceptually integrated? - How is this experienced when spread across 150 speakers in a live diffusion?