Friday, May 13, 2005

Waking Up With Stockhausen

Made the mistake of setting the alarm clock to radio as opposed to annoying loud buzz last night. This morning, I was jolted from the bed by some amazingly well-organized racket: Karlheinz Stockhausen's "Es." The performance notes are rather enigmatic: play only when you're not thinking. (as soon as you start thinking about responses to other performers' sounds, stop playing). I kind of like that notion of gut or intuitive response over intellectualized or reasoned approach. I'm not so sure, however, that I enjoy being roused in the morning to the sounds of Zen. Especially since my radio straddles stations and I was getting another layer added by the hip hop station that lives next door to WHRB.

Archaeology of Dissonance Orgy on WHRB.

For some good insight/explication/arguments for this movement, try John Cage's Silence.
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2 comments:

Nick said...

I hate the annoying buzz... I only ever use the radio. I like to wake up somewhat peacefully. The buzz jolts me awake, and I end up being in a crappy mood all morning.

Last time I used the buzz, I woke up having had a wierd dream where I was in a rocket ship heading for the moon. Suddenly the collision alarm went off and my copilot told me that an asteroid was about to hit us. The alarm kept going off... but no asteroid. We looked around searching for it... but nothing. Finally I asked "Well where is the damn thing?" That's when I woke up.

5/13/05, 9:19 AM
Be said...

I put the buzz alarm on because sometimes I will sleep through the radio if soft stuff's playing. I also have to keep the alarm across the room from me, because I've broken too many clocks by picking them up in my sleep and throwing them across the room.

I dream about the ring, too, by the way. One of the throw the clock across the room episodes was of me getting all psyched up about a boxing match I was in. The clock was the bell they ring to announce the start of rounds. I heard the bell, flipped out, grabbed it and threw it across the auditorium.

5/13/05, 9:49 AM

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