Upbeats: Season 4, Episode 9 (Braving Texture)

In this final part to their survey of different musical elements, Jon and Haz imagine cartwheels in Bach, the weight of silence, whether John Dowland had any party hits, how Mariah Carey would sing Twinkle Twinkle and, rather disturbingly, what Jon would look like in a bikini

Transcript

Braving The Stave
 Upbeats: Season 4, Episode 9 (Braving Texture)

Transcript

JJ

Hello. And on this very fine day towards the end of May, we welcome you to this podcast that is in a series of podcasts looking at different elements of music. My name is JJ.

Haz

My name is Haz. 

JJ
 How are you?
 
 Haz

Really well thank you. 
 
 JJ
 
 It's difficult not to be well in this spring sunshine, I want to say summer sunshine.

Haz
 
 Exactly. This is what I was going to say. End of May, May lasted for like an afternoon. April was OK, May was straight through and now basically it's June. So bikinis on.

JJ

Excellent. Well, for some of us.

Haz

Jon’s sitting here with a bikini on, sun hat ready.

JJ

That would be disturbing.

Haz

Mmm. It would.

JJ

It's been, I'm going to say, texturally interesting, the weather. We've gone from sleet to the kind of baby blue skies that Greece would be proud of.

Haz

Yeah. I mean, I'm not complaining. It's great. I like it this end more, I think, a little bit – little bit - hot, but not so much that I have to whack the factor 50 on. Constantly.

JJ

I slipped in a word there. Do you notice?

Haz

Uhm.. was it texture?
 
 JJ
 
 It was texture!
 
 Haz
 
 Oh well, well done. And that is about the only part of your text that I understood this month. Your prep for this podcast is amazing and so cool and it delights me. But I did not understand a single word else of this apart from texture.

JJ

You mean when I said could you just come up with some examples of monody that you liked you thought… you weren't overwhelmed with mediaeval chants?

Haz

Yeah. I swear this on the drive to you. I was like, “OK Google, what is monody?” And it's like “Monody”... Oh, my phones going off now. It's like “Monody is a type of ancient Greek mythology play.” I was like, I don't think it is because I like JJ, we're friends and he wouldn't send me down a weird rabbit hole of something that isn't musical.

JJ

Well, I almost did and we should just go back a step and explain that we're looking at texture today, which I suppose for some might be the easiest ways into understanding music, right? Because anybody can tell, you don't need to an advanced ear to tell is this a dense texture or is it a sparse one? Or you know is there a solo line or not. So, in a in a way maybe we could have even started with this. But I think texture is the fun bit where The Alchemist turns it into a perfume. You know, when you actually… all the elements come together and it helps to have a really fine ear for the melodic line, the harmony and all the other things that are finally being brought together into the full picture.

Haz

Yeah, that's a good way of thinking.

JJ

Oh thank you. I thought I thought it could work.

Haz

I'm keen to be educated by you today of, literally like, I need to get my notepad and paper. I'm supposed to be teaching Grade 8 theory. I haven’t got a clue, mate. Dunno what I'm doing.

JJ

Lord help us all. 
 
 Haz
 
 Yeah. 
 
 JJ
 
 Should we do this? Should we just go through the different standard ways of describing texture? Let's forget monody, because that's a very specific form of chant and start with monophony. So a single line.

Haz

Mono-phony. So one musical line?

JJ

One sound.
 
 Haz
 
 One sound, ok.
 
 One sound- phonos, one sound that you're listening to. The most primitive, if you like, form of music. You can think of a solo voice, you can think of someone just banging a drum, that would be monophonic or an example of monophony. But it doesn't have to be monotonous. That's the thing. So I thought we could maybe just start with an example of each. I wanted to start with a precursor to Bach because the go-to for both of us would be “well, let's just do some solo Bach.”

Haz

Yeah, totally. And I'm going to unsurprise you here by having prepared some solo Bach.

JJ

Well, there's the thing. But before there was Bach, there was Johann Paul von Westhoff.

Haz

Ooh.

JJ

Who was a very innovative East German who explored the technical and virtuosic capacities of the violin. And this is a part of one of his partitas for solo violin that is often played as an encore because it involves bariolage.

Haz

Oh, that's when you dye your hair different colours and it all blends into one. Or is that balayage?

JJ

That maybe. I don't know, is a quick answer to that, said he patting his bald head.

Haz

OK.

JJ

In musical terms, it's when you have a rainbow of colours that is set off when you cross the strings on a stringed instrument 
 
 Haz

Ooh.

 
 JJ
 
 and quickly sort of arch back and forwards and that is bariolage. 

Haz

Wow.

JJ

And so all I'm saying with this is that, even though there's I think there's a sneaky little bit of cello or basso continuo beneath this, just to listen to the solo line that is the violin and see how colourful just one instrument can be.
 
 [Music.  Johann Paul von Westhoff. Immitazione delle Campane (Imitation of the Bells). Artists: Daniel Hope]
 
 JJ
 
 So that was “Imitation of the Bells.”  Immitazione delle Campane by Westhoff. What did you think of that?

Haz

Amazing. As soon as it started I was like, yeah, I like this thing. And also it sounds like so much or so many more players than just one, and a continuo. It sounds like you've got a whole chorus that is maybe standing in different parts of a cathedral playing and then this sound, just, raising up to the roofs but I can't believe it's one player.

JJ

It's like spectral music in the sense of it's exploring pure colour, isn't it? It's so radiant and you can hear the harmonies that underpin, and it goes into really quite daring harmonies as well. So there's a lot that's innovative about this.

Haz

Yeah.

JJ

And that was Daniel Hope, by the way, playing that.

Haz

Ohh yeah.
 
 JJ
 
 I love Daniel Hope.

Haz
 
 Me too. Yeah, he does a lot of Max Richter stuff doesn’t he.

JJ

He does. He does the full suite of things and I think he's a very versatile player and we need more Daniel hope in our lives.

Haz

Absolutely.

JJ

Other violinists are available, but we should... Let's go to your classic example of monophony.

Haz

Yeah. OK. So the one… I was like, OK, please explain this to me slowly. What is monophony? And then when you did and said ok it’s one solo line I was like, well, we have to go to Bach. Obviously.
 
 JJ
 
 Obviously. 
 
 Haz
 
 If we're going to Bach for me, it has to be the cello suites. But I'm not going to make it that easy for you. Oh, no. We're going to do the viola transcription version by Simon Rowland-Jones, Simon Rowland-Jones [in faux Welsh accent]. I don't know if he is Welsh but.

JJ

Let's claim him as a as a Welshman, yeah.

Haz

Yeah. Who is an amazing arranger, researcher and teacher. I’ve had a few master classes with him before and he's come up with his own edition of the cello suites for viola, so it makes sure that we have all the notes that are available to us with the same strings, C,G,D and A. But to make sure that each of the base notes really sing because we can't play the same, you know, thumb position for example, as the cello does. So I've chosen the two minuets from the first cello suite in G Major and it's played and arranged by Simon Rowland-Jones.
 
 [Music. Bach. two minuets from the first cello suite in G Major, arr. Simon Rowland-Jones. Artists: Simon Rowland-Jones]

JJ

Note. It's one of those melodies that you never quite know what's around the corner, even when it's familiar to you.

Haz

That's it. And you've got the major and the minor, then going back to the major. It's like, “wooah, we've changed again” and it sounds so busy and so still at the same time, like ever flowing.

JJ

That's a nice way of putting it and, as ever, with the genius of Bach, the harmonies are so beautifully implied you can almost hear the chords
 
 Haz
 
 Yeah. 
 
 JJ
 
 even though it's just a single line. So, I wanted to end this review of monophony - not a sentence that one often says – with… well, this was an encore that was given by the wonderfully named Zlatomir Fung. He's an amazing cellist. He's a young guy, mid 20s, won the international Tchaikovsky competition and various other awards and he's just… I think like the new Rostropovich, he is a genius 
 
 Haz
 
 Wow
 
 JJ
 
 and I say that, you know cautiously because it's an overused word, but every single sentence of what he said on that instrument was deeply thought. And so eloquent. And he came out having done the Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto

Haz

Yeah.

JJ

with the RPO, the Royal Phil. and he played this powerful prayer by Ernst Bloch and it's…. “From the Jewish Life” is the name of the suite from which it's drawn. But this is based on a scale that Palestinians and Israelis would share. And so in that context, it was just a, a really moving moment of reflection on current affairs and just a plea really from the cello.

Haz

Mmm.

JJ

And a beautiful example of eloquence, monophony.
 
 [Music. Ernst Bloch and it's…. “From the Jewish Life”. Artists: Zlatomir Fung]

Haz

That is really beautiful and impactful as well.

JJ

Yeah. And you could imagine in the context of today's horrible headlines, how important it was to be reminded of how much we share and just enter into that spiritual space. Just a single instrument. A cello at the centre of this large concert hall, we were in the Bristol Beacon, so that was Ernst Bloch and a lovely example of monophony. Let's move on now to heterophony.

Haz

Right. So hetero meaning… is that more than one or is that 2, or… what? I don’t know.

JJ

More than one, but this is the one that often gets a little bit confused with homophony. You have two or more parts essentially doing the same line, but in a slightly different fashion to each other. So, a typical example would be from folk music, where you have one part, let's say singing a folk song, and it's just the pure line. And then another part simultaneously embellishing the same line above.

Haz

Mm-hmm.

JJ

And so we're going to try that now. Are you ready for this?

Haz

I am but is it with harmony? Are they doing it? Because that's the bit that I can't… Maybe it's my viola-player brain but if you were singing the melody I'd instantly want to sing a harmony accompaniment rather than the same thing. A little bit different.

JJ

Now the point is that you're also treating the same melodic line, so you're departing from the same melodic shape as what's being sung beneath in this case.

Haz

Ohh friends. OK right.

JJ

So, I mean. You could have some harmony going along as well underneath.

Haz

I doubt it!

JJ

As you know, other players might be involved, but what's going on, you know, say, between the two vocal parts. In this example you’d describe that bit as heterophenous or…

Haz

OK, so same but different. Same thing, differently executed or…?

JJ

Yes, differently interpreted, but it's manifestly the same line. OK, so here's Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. Ok, now you're the better singer

Haz

As if!

JJ

so I'm just going to sing [sings] Twinkle, twinkle and then if you can, can you just do a kind of Mariah Carey type version?

Haz

OK. Don't have to ask me twice. Abso-blinking-lutely, OK.

JJ

And this will be a beautiful example
 
 Haz
 
 Will it?!
 
  JJ
 
 of heterophony. Here we go.

JJ and Haz 
 
 [sing] Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star 
 
 JJ
 
 Yeah!
 
 Haz
 
 Is that good?

 JJ

Yeah, I think so! There was a bit of harmonising as well, because you can't help yourself.

Haz

Sorry, I tried not. It's I can't help it but also I…

JJ

You're too musical for this exercise.

Haz

But your ears were bleeding, so I had to stop as well.

JJ

Do you think that's enough heterophony for one podcast?

Haz

Probably. It's like for me when the whole stadium is singing the American national anthem and Fergie's there like “ooeeeh eehh eeh”.

JJ

That's a brilliant example of heterophony.

Haz

OK, great. Because that was bonkers. 
 
 JJ
 
 Yes.
 
 Haz
 
 Same but very different.
 
 

JJ

Very different. Yeah. I mean, for it to be, yeah, not a counter melody and therefore an example of polyphony, which we’ll go on to, you still have to recognise the same melodic shape. So maybe Fergie went off on one.

Haz

Yeah, she was just executing her right to heterophony. 
 
 JJ
 
 Yeah, I think she was!

Haz

Yeah! God, she's good.

JJ

Maybe. Wow.

JJ

Ok, so then maybe we could look at homophony. You're down with this, I think.

Haz

Do you know there's so many phonies now? I don't mean that in the way like… I've lost track. So homophony - that's melody and accompaniment?

JJ

It is
 
 Haz
 
 Ok.
 
 JJ
 
 So ‘homo’ in the sense of everything moving in the same direction. That's the thing, that's the ‘same’ bit of it is. That even though you've got different lines involved, they are subordinate to the melody, so everything is being dictated by the one line and everything's moving in a supporting similar way.

Haz

Meat and veg and like... peas and pods.

JJ

Yeah. You can say that, yeah, rather than meat and ice cream, yes.

Haz

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. OK. But not meat and meat, which would be heterophony.

JJ

Yes, means, sort of two different kinds of meat. Essentially. Yeah, yeah.

Haz

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. OK, cool.

JJ

Yeah. So I think you had a good example of this.

Haz

Oh, crumbs. Now, what did I choose now? Oh, I do remember this. See, I know what I'm doing. This is John Dowland.

JJ

Beautiful. Tell us about it.

Haz

Thank you. OK, so I only know about this because of when I was in college, I went to a guitar sharing, master class. And this was one of the ones that's like the staple. Like the Bach is for us, John Dowland is… I say for us. I meant us…

JJ

For us string players, yes.

Haz

Yeah, yeah, yeah. All us violists. So Dowland is for guitarists and it’s Flow My Tears. 
 
 JJ
 
 Beautiful choice! 
 
 Haz
 
 Yeah, and because you have the melody and accompaniment and it's been done so many different ways with singer and guitarist, or you can have melody and accompaniment on the same instrument with accompaniment. So, with harp, piano and guitar, for example, you can both play the tune and the accompaniment on the same instrument, which is amazing.

JJ

The keyword here is accompaniment, i.e. this is about supporting the melodic line and going essentially in the same direction. 

Haz

Yes. 
 
 JJ
 
 Hence homophony. 
 
 Haz
 
 Yeah, great. 
 
 JJ
 
 Let's have a listen.
 
 [Music. John Dowland. Flow My Tears. Artists: Elin Manahan Thomas (soprano) David Miller (lute)]

Haz
 
 So that was John Dowland's Flow My Tears sung by Elin Manahan Thomas and David Miller was playing the guitar I believe. Lute.

JJ

Lute. Yes, that's the thing. And even though they're codependent, you know, and they have some elements of independence to the lines. It's all about the melody, isn't it? And so we can say it's homophonic. And what a beautiful voice she's got.

Haz

Yeah, absolutely gorgeous.

JJ

John Dowland's good at lamenting, isn't he.

Haz

 Yeah, wasn't that…  it was originally called Lacrimosa something, so Wikipedia tells me this morning on my drive over. Thank you, Google. But yeah, it's beautiful. And it's mournful and quite haunting, I think.

JJ

Yes, I think he's very good at the lamenting haunting- type mode of music. I can't imagine him having a party, John Dowland, somehow. I'm sure he does and excuse me listeners, if I'm grossly misrepresenting the man.

Haz

You haven't heard John Dowland’s [faux American accent] Welcome to the Party? 

JJ

No! top ten…
 
 

Haz

No, it's the slaps. It's absolutely amazing. 

JJ

wow bangers
 
 Haz
 
 Yeah, it really is.
 
 JJ
 
 Right. Anyway, that's a lovely example of homophony. I feel we can move on now to polyphony.

Haz

Ohh crumbs, right. So, polyphony - lots of sounds.
 
 JJ
 
 Lots of sounds coming together
 
 Haz
 
 Coming together OK.

JJ

And people get, sort of, confused around this. They think the lines involved need to be independent in some way, but that's not necessarily true. You can have a polyphonic texture which is still about having primary lines and accompanying ones. It's just that they're accorded a more equal importance in the overall mix.

Haz

OK, right.

JJ

So it doesn't have to be a fugue.

Haz

OK, so this is what I was thinking. I was like, ok, so you don't have to have the same thing coming in at different times and working either with or against each other. It can be different independent lines, different… I mean, orchestra stuff.

JJ

Exactly. And So what we're saying here is it doesn't have to be examples of imitative writing like a cannon or a fugue. As long as there are separate and clearly defined lines within the texture that you can enjoy, that's polyphony.

Haz

Great. Oh, how exciting.

JJ

So, this is where texture gets quite interesting, because it begins to tickle the ear and I love to sit down with a decent set of headphones and just listen to beautifully textured pieces of art, I think.

Haz

Mmm. Because then it's not noise. It's like cultured... I don't want to say “cultured chaos”, but it's all there for you and you can zone into different lines at different times and how the mood takes you.

JJ

That's part of the pleasure, isn't it? Of listening to a complex piece of music. So, I thought I would start with a surprise.

Haz

Uh oh.

JJ

Which is to say that, you know, you can have a polyphonic piece of music that's about bringing together different time fields and different... 

Haz

Oh gosh. 
 
 JJ
 
 No relax because this is such a chilled piece of music. This is…

Haz

OK. You're not gonna get me to try and play it are you?!

JJ

No! There's no tests involved here.
 
 Haz
 
 Ok, good!
 
 JJ
 
 That's the thing of the past. Twinkle, Twinkle Star can rest a beautiful memory. 
 
 Haz
 
 Amazing.
 
 JJ
 
 We're going to listen to a piece of, I suppose, contemporary jazz by Corto.alto, which are a Manchester based unit and I love what they do. Here is an example of a different feel that's given to the… for example the break beat in the drums, the bass is in a certain time field and then everything around it, the sort of soupy keys and the melodic lines seem to occupy a different… I'm not going to say time signature, but a time feel.

Haz

Mmm.

JJ

And it's just to make the point that, yeah, you can have different rhythms coming together in this way and it be a great example of polyphony.

Haz

Great, I'm excited.
 
 [Music. Corto.alto.]

JJ

Have you got a nice example of polyphony?

Haz

Well, I do but now I feel like mine’s just imitation. Or just fugue, which is… is that still OK?

JJ

It's valid and I think you know we need to have that as part of our set of examples.

Haz

OK. To be fair, it is the OG. It is Beethoven.

JJ

Well, there we go.

Haz

Well, I mean, please. So this is from Symphony  No. 5, the third movement I believe is the scherzo and it's when all of the different parts of the orchestra come in with the same “de de guh deguh deguh deguh deguh” and it's so exciting.

JJ

It is in music the equivalent of “chase me, chase me!”

Haz

Yeah!

JJ

It's so playful. 
 
 Haz
 
 Yeah! “Come over here. Look what I've got! Ooh!” Yeah, it's very flirty, I think, in that way. 

JJ

Have you got a suitably flirtatious performance? 
 
 Haz
 
 Oh yeah, because there are some that are really slow. 
 
 JJ
 
 Reeaally slow!
 
 Haz
 
 Yeah, really measured and I think you got to have a bit of risk, a bit of gay abandon, you know, about your Beethoven.
 
 [Music. Beethoven: Symphony  No. 5, Movt. 3; Scherzo. Artists: Boston Philharmonic, Benjamin Zander]

JJ

Thunderous playing there by the cellos and basses.

Haz

Yeah. And it's really exciting and it's like when you're waiting your bar’s rest, you're like, oh, I can't wait to come in. And then everyone rushes. I mean, obviously because it's so exciting, but.

JJ

Sacrilegious.

Haz

I mean, yeah, obviously I don't rush. I give major…

JJ

Ever.

Haz

Ever. If anything, I'm dragging. I'm too cool. But yeah, give ferocious side eye to anyone who is. And it's just really good fun. It's good fun to play, good fun to listen to and you can see it's almost like a tennis match with the orchestra playing the different parts and then the audience just watching as their head goes “tch, tch, tch” to each different section.

JJ

That's a lot of fun, and I suppose as you're playing that scherzo, so you know what's around the corner and that's part of the fun, too, isn't it? 
 
 Haz
 
 Mmm. Yeah.
 
 JJ
 
 That sense of what you're building up to, the most majestic finale in symphonic music thus far. 

Haz

Yeah.

JJ

That, by the way, was the Boston Philharmonic under my old boss Benjamin Zander, who's full of beans, particularly when it comes to Beethoven, he takes things at a proper lick.

Haz

Yeah, you can sense it. It's great. It's fun, vibrant.

JJ

As vibrant as his hair there on that particular video, which was electrified.

Haz

Yeah!

JJ

Great fun. And yeah, you can sense his... I suppose he's humour coming across - both Benjamin Zander’s, but also Beethoven's.

Haz

Yeah.

JJ

We have to talk about Bach and his handling of polyphonic texture and it comes at the end of his Brandenburg No. 3 for strings. You've played this, haven’t you?

Haz

Mmhm. I love this.

JJ
 
 So what's it like to play?

Haz

So this one is amazing because it is fast and you're in the centre with all these amazing musicians around you. I feel like it's a bit like acrobatics so that you're all tumbling in the air at the same time, but you have to come together. Yeah.

JJ

I get that image I get… cartwheels is what I think of.

Haz

Yeah, exactly. And you can't just, you know, keep your head down and just do your part because otherwise you’re gonna bash into someone else. You have to give a little bit and take a little bit with time. And listen to the other parts around you.

JJ

It's a perfect bit of sonic choreography, isn't it.
 
 Haz
 
 Yeah.
 
 JJ
 
 Because the way the tumbles interact with each other is almost as you're seeing a sequence of arches across the stage.

Haz

Yeah.

JJ

Sort of, one gives way to the other and you see that in the score actually, how the arches of each phrase overlap. 
 
 Haz
 
 Yeah
 
 JJ
 
 And when it's done, you know, at a proper pace and with the right virtuosity, it's… I still hold my breath.

Haz

Yes, me too. I love it. Yeah.
 
 [Music. Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 for Strings.]

JJ

I defy anybody to listen to that without having a smile on their face, basically.

Haz

Yeah, and a little bit of a head pop as well, yeah.

JJ

Exactly. It's easy to dance to in that sense, isn't it?

Haz

Yeah.

JJ

A beautiful example of very close imitative writing and polyphony from the genius that is Bach.

Haz

Yeah, and you can… that is busy, isn't it? You can… when you hear that you're like, yeah, that's a busy part.

JJ

Yes, it’s the definition of musical business, isn't it? And yet the clarity of it is, is genius. 
 
 Haz
 
 Mmhm.
 
 JJ
 
 I've used the word genius a lot, perhaps overused it in this podcast.

Haz

I don't think you have. I think honestly, that is… when we talk about Bach, that is genius. Yeah.

JJ

We're on safe ground.
 
 Haz
 
 Yeah, we're fine. Yeah.

Ok. So I thought it would be interesting to end our survey today with actually looking at a completely different kind of textural variety, one that isn't often talked about and it's that between sound and silence. 
 
 Ha
 
 Yeah. 
 
 JJ
 
 So when the composer is deliberately looking at the quality of a silence and the tension you can put around it by framing it with sound. And it could be that, well, let's just take an example, quite a well known example from the orchestral repertoire is the ending of Sebelius's Fifth Symphony, which is where, I mean… I have a vision. I know he speaks of swans in the finale, but by the time you get to the end of this majestic movement, you've got, for me, the sense of a large ship in motion on the waves.

Haz

Mmm.

JJ

And there are lines that are colliding and merging, and the only logical riposte that is to go beyond sound and into silence. And so, when you listen to these final pillar chords, really what you're listening to in the silence is the quality of the reverberation from the previous chord. And that sense of expectation and tension around the chord to follow, so that silence takes on an ambivalent quality. Have you played Sibelius 5?

Haz

I have, I think. I can't remember it, but as soon as you play it for us now I know I'll be able to remember it. But yeah, you're right. Silence sometimes says a lot more than words sometimes.

JJ

And it's an important part of a texture to work with and to use in a refined way, which is exactly what Sibelius does here.
 
 [Music. Sibelius: Fifth Symphony, Movt.]

Haz

Mmm.

JJ

I once did an amateur performance of that and someone did fall into the rest.

Haz

Oh, I can't stand it.

JJ

A second violinist, and he was mortified.

Haz

Yeah, and never worked again. Like, not because no one wanted him but because they can't do it! It's like…

JJ

It's a traumatising experience, falling into rest that large.

Haz

Yeah. And imagine being in the first audience for this, like “dun………[clap]….. dun……. Oh!”

JJ

Yeah! Oh, oh, oh oh.

Haz

Oh.

JJ

Six chords yet to go!

Haz

Yeah, yeah.

JJ

It is quirky though, isn't it?

Haz

Yeah! It's brave as well because I don't really know of many other examples that are like that. Like, it's powerful to leave room to breathe. 

JJ

Hmm. It is. So here's actually another version of the same concept, but it's by Takemitsu. The Japanese composer. Do you like him?

Haz

Oh yeah, I know the guitar… again, just weirdly, the guitar stuff from [inaudible]

JJ

He composed a lot for guitar, very meditative pieces for guitar in the main.

Haz

Yeah.

JJ

Again, very imaginative in his use of colour. He's post-Messiaen, in that sense, just exploring that French use of colour.
 
 Haz
 
 Mmhm.
 
 JJ
 
 But also experimental in how he treats sound generally, and this is a study for vibration. From a suite called Corona. Rather unfortunately named now!
 
 Haz
 
 Yeah.
 
 JJ
 
 But anyway, we'll look beyond that and it's for prepared piano, but also in this case for organ and for various other sounds but we're not going to get that far because actually in the first instance, it's just about exploring silence.
 
 [Music. Takemitsu: Corona; Movt. 1 Study for Vibration, possibly slow (blue)]

Haz

I thought you'd paused that for a laugh. That's for me, personally, uncomfortably long in a silence.

JJ

You just wait until the next pause - that was 90 seconds, it was about to be this next pause, which doesn't make for a great podcast, I don't think.

Haz

No, let's listen to it in its duration, but no… exactly. And also, I bet watching that live, your stomach goes rumbling off and then someone’s alarm goes off and….

JJ

It's a whole world of worry and concern, isn't it, when you're faced with that.
 
 Haz

Yeah.

JJ

The weight of that silence. But it does make you think, you know, in the privacy of your own listening environment that you can really, sort of, I know, get into the quality of silence in that way and almost test yourself to see how your patience works in that scenario.

Haz

Yeah. I would fail. Immediately I would fail [sings] “duh, duduhle duh duh, duh duh”. Give me a nice perfect ending. Move on.

JJ

So, this was the last in a series, as I said at the outset, of us looking at different elements of music. Listeners should enjoy, I think, the full range of what we've offered. I'm quite proud!

Haz

Yeah, me too. It wasn't all Bach, and it wasn't all… well for me it wasn't all pleasant listening, but you have to push yourself a little bit otherwise you're just gonna listen to the same thing. It's just an echo chamber of the same things and you get bored.

JJ

We hopefully have pushed you past your normal listening habits. We've looked at rhythm, melody, harmony, colour and today texture. So that's quite a comprehensive survey of different ways of listening to music, essentially.

Haz

Yeah.

JJ

And next time we'll just be looking at summer music together.

Haz

Nice. Ok, cool. That's nice.

JJ

So, I thought we could maybe see people off with a bit of Reich because whenever you talk about texture, you have to think about minimalism, don't you?

Haz

You do and this is what I was worried you were gonna get me to clap or something in this session. So, thank you for just playing it at the end. I appreciate that.

JJ

As I say, no further tests involved. This is Music for Pieces of Wood, which makes… I suppose it brings the focus to just how much textural variety you can get from slightly different pitched bits of wood and the interaction between different rhythmic patterns. And I can listen to this for about 90 seconds before I go slightly stir crazy, but I believe you're better at this.

Haz

No, I think you're a better human than I am. I'll probably do less than half. I'm gonna give myself 30 seconds of Reich listening. Let's see how far you get, folks.

JJ

OK, so this is Steve Reich to see us out, with a lovely bit of texture. See you next month.
 
 Haz
 
 Hwyl fawr!
 
 [Music. Reich: Music for Pieces of Wood.]