Class: Time-Frame

Professor: Joseph Ayers

​

For this project, we are told to create a soundscape based on anything we like. And influenced by the movie, The Pianist, I decided to take this project as a reflective piece based on history and the suffering we’ve caused ourselves. During the process, it was easy for me to collect the sounds that I needed; however, how to organize them so that everything comes together. At first, I wanted to incorporate nature as a part of my piece and illustrate a visual image of nature. First steadily from the stream to the forest, then climax at the open of the meadows. Then, thinking about the name of the class and time, I want to keep a consistent theme for the pieces I create. Therefore, I chose to explore the repetition of time and how history can repeat itself. And it is done by repeating the same sound clip at the beginning and the end. As the sound proceeds, a mixture of bombing, sirens, screams, and footsteps intercepts the main melody (piano). It represents the experience of the people involved in wars and mass slaughter (WWII). It might be brutal and devastating to listen to, but there is a sense of harmony between the notes. And this harmony is maintained by the piano sound in the piece. As the main structure of the work, the piano has three sections to it. The first section has steady beats that capture the audience's attention, then a slow melody in the middle ending with a similar intense moment towards the end.

​

Furthermore, an attractive section of this piece happens towards the end, where the main melody is reaching its climax. If you listen closely to this piece, you will notice beeping sounds in the background. This is a morse code recorded by myself delivering a message of “not far away, not long ago.” This quote is actually from the exhibition held in the Jewish Heritage Museum in Manhattan. The production was on Auschwitz, the town where mass slaughter during World War II took place. I find the quote interesting because no matter what happens in the history of our world, it might happen again and that we never know when exactly it will happen.