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Paper Instructions:
Watch the two videos linked below. One example is a work by The Beatles called “Revolution 9,” which was released on the 1968 album, The Beatles, otherwise known as The White Album. “Revolution 9” is also a sound collage work that combines spoken word & found sound recordings, using composition techniques borrowed from tape music. The visual imagery in the video is not original to "Revolution 9." The other example is a work by German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen called “Hymnen” or (in English) “Anthems.” It is a sound collage piece Stockhausen completed in 1966-67. Though Stockhausen is primarily associated with electronic music composition (sound synthesis), this work also uses methods borrowed from tape music composition (or musique concréte).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0aeagbZBRs&feature=emb_title
As you listen to these two examples, compare their approaches to sound collage & their use of pre-recorded sounds. After they stopped touring in the mid-1960s, The Beatles increasingly focused on developing more experimental approaches to studio recording. They also began expanding the types of musical influences they incorporated into their songwriting, including the Indian classical music tradition George Harrison encountered while studying sitar with Ravi Shankar in India in 1966. The Beatles were familiar with Stockhausen’s experiments in electronic music composition during the 1960s as well, and Stockhausen is one of the figures pictured on the cover of The Beatles’ 1967Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Compose a journal submission that answers the following questions in no more than 300 words total:
What sounds do you hear in each example?
Why do you think Stockhausen & The Beatles used pre-recorded material for these works?
Do theses pieces constitute “music”? Why or why not?
What do you think these works reflect about technology & musical creativity in the 1960s?
This Assignment is worth 100 points. Each question answered is worth 25 points. If any question is not addressed you will not receive the 25 points for that question.
