A conversation you cannot hear explores one of my deepest musical fascinations - the ability of the human brain to follow multiple strains of activity and information at the same time. From the outset, there are two lines of musical thought presented - one begins as soft, warm, consonant harmonies in the strings and piano, and the other is represented by angular, shrill gestures in the winds and snare drum. This is not a peaceful coexistence, however. As the piece continues, the competing drives of these two musics bring them into more and more direct conflict, which gradually causes both of their identities to be compromised. Ultimately, this musical “battle” culminates in the deafening strike of a bass drum, which to me symbolizes the ramifications of this struggle: the infliction of an irreversible, critical harm that - not unlike the strikes of the hammer in the final movement of Mahler’s Sixth Symphony - smashes the structural integrity of both musics to dust and brings the processual progress of the piece to a brutal, abrupt halt.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bu.edu/oai:open.bu.edu:2144/48775 |
| Date | 16 May 2024 |
| Creators | Tetta, Len Patrick |
| Contributors | Cornell, Richard |
| Source Sets | Boston University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
| Rights | Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ |
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