# The world is a piece of music



## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Sit yourself down anywhere in the world.

Close your eyes, and open your ears....

What do you hear?

As I write this I hear the whispery drones of wind, an unpitched aerophone. It's sound and movement, it's vibrations and air pressure, influence and are influenced by the shape of the environment around them: there is a rustle of leaves against the fence, percussive wooden idiophones set in motion against one another as the wind pushes them-my mum just opened the door to my room creating a separate layer of sound, now slight creaking remains as the door hasn't been shut properly (let me fix that, which creates another sound in the complex percussive and aspirate piece that surrounds me).

What I find most interesting is the effect of dynamics against the sounds outside my open window. Stronger and louder tenuto, marcato gusts of wind create more intense rustles and knocks of the objects outside.

Ooh something different, I hear the neighbours talking; a short phrase is repeated ('I'll do it tomorrow' by a male voice then repeated at a slightly higher pitch and louder).

Underneath it all, blending with the sounds of the wind is the hum of cars on the main road several blocks away.

So.

That's what I am hearing right now, I am treating it like a piece of music, a complex organisation of sounds created by independent decisions and acts of pure chance.

For anyone willing to join in, I would love to hear what the music of the world is like wherever you are, and also what you think of this kind of listening. 

all credit to john cage for 4'33"


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

I just farted lol

wot a masterpiece


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## Abraham Lincoln (Oct 3, 2015)

I didn't know John Cage was a TC user.


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## Guest (Nov 25, 2015)

Currently Violin Concerto by Berg, with the slurping of coffee intermittently.


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## helenora (Sep 13, 2015)

world is a piece of music...then it's music of Bruckner and I'm listening to it.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> Sit yourself down anywhere in the world.
> 
> Close your eyes, and open your ears....
> 
> ...


Re the bit I put in bold, it makes it sound like a bit like a monkey at a typewriter, it could make poetry, but probably it won't. That's why we need Luc Ferrari I suppose.

What do you think of the Cage etudes?


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## Guest (Nov 25, 2015)

First thing I became aware of, per COAG's suggestion, was some tinnitus, left channel only, joined by a guy banging on the gas cans out in the street, which meant that as if on cue there was some car noise. Pretty quiet because far-ish away and also the window's closed. It got cold here suddenly. As the guy at the liquor store said the other day, yesterday water skiing/today snow skiing. Anyway, there was a louder car sound just now, with crescendo, too. And the cat snoring and the clock ticking and there's a hum coming from somewhere. Pretty sure it's the refrigerator, but it sounds like it's coming from the laundry room.

That's another fascinating thing about sound. Where is it coming from? I'm on what in the US would be called the fifth floor. The only window in my room looks out over an area: ground floor "back yards" and the outside seating for the Obama: British Africa bar. Somehow, the buildings all around **** around with the sound until it seems like some of them (the sounds, not the buildings) are coming from right outside the window. That is, it sounds like people are walking and talking and dogs are barking right outside the window on the same level, a level that's around 20 meters off the ground.

The kids upstairs provide a lively bass line from time to time. Any time they get restless and have to run back and forth across my ceiling.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

On purpose: Berlioz' Harold en Italie.

Mixed with:
- the bells of the church tower followed by the carillon of the church tower
- the reconstruction work going on next door
- people walking and talking animated on the street
- the dog begging for attention

I'm listening, as usual, in our gallery located in the main shopping street.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

...the refrigerator is humming the element of the stove is clicking as it cools down from having heated my morning porridge the ceiling is abuzz with the sound of saws and scraping as the roofers have refurned to complete the resurfacing there are distant sounds of jetliners taking off at the airport the trampling on the roof drowns out the aircraft the stove has stopped clicking the fridge is off the computer was on all along but now the hum of the cooling fan is audible...


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## Gouldanian (Nov 19, 2015)

I hear the beep sound of a truck backing up which is providing a modernist flavour to the classical music I'm listening to.


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## Stavrogin (Apr 20, 2014)

I close my eyes...

...and I hear the squeaking sounds of my brains trying to understand what the ****** are you all on.

I kid I kid


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## Guest (Nov 25, 2015)

In before someone says a Mahler symphony.

But really, the world is obviously the LICHT cycle. Many sounds, many colors... all bound by a single set of formulae.


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## TradeMark (Mar 12, 2015)

The world sounds pretty boring to me. all I can I hear is the sound of my fan and computer running.


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

Sometimes it can be nice to focus on the sounds of life. Then again, I'm very sensitive to sound and also quickly annoyed by certain sounds. I often listen to music to find rest and shut myself off from irritating sounds of the outside world.


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## Guest (Nov 25, 2015)

Then again, I too am very sensitive to sound and become quickly intrigued by certain sounds. I often listen to sounds to find life and connect myself to the world around me.


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## LHB (Nov 1, 2015)

Muted chatter of my grandparents and my mom, the sound of the cat on my bed moving in her sleep, the crackling of ice in my drink, the whirring of my desk fan, the sound of my keyboard typing this message.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

So cool to see a non-controversial thread about 4'33" with the actual content of each post about the true intention of the piece.


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## Guest (Nov 25, 2015)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> So cool to see a non-controversial thread about 4'33" with the actual content of each post about the true intention of the piece.


You naughty man.


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

some guy said:


> Then again, I too am very sensitive to sound and become quickly intrigued by certain sounds. I often listen to sounds to find life and connect myself to the world around me.


In nature, yes!
But not all sounds are that special, that's why we have music. 
In daily life, in an urban, densely populated environment, I often prefer to shut myself off because I feel all the sounds subconsciously contribute to fatigue.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

I agree with the OP in a philosophical sense, but not in a sense that I enjoy listening to natural sounds in the same way or capacity that I enjoy listening to music. I understand other people enjoy listening to nature sounds the same way they enjoy music and that's fine with me. I do enjoy nature sound mixtapes though, like the Fontana Mix. Those are fun.

Also, I feel like I'm in the super minority here but I actually really enjoy industrial city sounds. Cities excite me.


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## Richannes Wrahms (Jan 6, 2014)

I don't agree with this definition of music. Soil is not a tomato.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

DeepR said:


> In nature, yes!
> But not all sounds are that special, that's why we have music.
> In daily life, in an urban, densely populated environment, I often prefer to shut myself off because I feel all the sounds subconsciously contribute to fatigue.


I'm glad I'm not the only one. Some sounds disrupt my thinking. Usually it's people who have what I call a pathological compulsion to talk. They do not suffer from this malady however. We do. And those who speak the most have the least to say. If only my brain would turn the racket into abstract sound rather than words, I'd be okay with it.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

A stereo susurration of jet planes flying overhead.
The unsteady ebb and flow of the cooling fan. (Yeah, I probably need a new one.)
Key clicks.
My insides going "yripp! glee-urk" after I have just eaten a salad, audible only because of the blessed low decibels of everything else.
A clack as my ankle joint pops when I flex it.
Another plane, lower and louder this time.

So I have come full circle.

(Didn't fool me. I thought of 4'33" immediately.)


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

I've long been a fan of the music of noise-electroacoustic or taped or what-have-you-but there are limits.

The sounds of nature (birds, wind, water) tend to be soothing to most people.

While I also enjoy the sounds of the city, I find that sounds that prevent me from concentrating or sleeping or that grate on my consciousness, even to the point of producing nausea and headaches, quickly become intolerable. I am pretty sure I have read research on this-that noise that we are unable to control and that is unwanted (dogs barking, people talking, televisions blaring, non-Classical music pounding, lawnmowers screaming, traffic roaring, industry squealing) can adversely affect our psychological well-being.



Richannes Wrahms said:


> Soil is not a tomato.


...but you can get a tomato from the soil :lol::devil:


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

violadude said:


> Also, I feel like I'm in the super minority here but I actually really enjoy industrial city sounds. Cities excite me.


Yeah, I disagree about that VD. Industrial things make me anxious.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

I love industrial sounds! But there is only one sound I truly don't like: the piercing high screech from when a car brake needs servicing.


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

I think music was invented because the world wasn't sufficiently a piece of music.


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## Guest (Nov 26, 2015)

violadude said:


> I feel like I'm in the super minority here but I actually really enjoy industrial city sounds. Cities excite me.


Well, as long as you don't mind sharing the minority with me. I prefer city sounds. The screech of a car brake is one of my favorites. Not really all that big on nature sounds. (Though I can totally do it; I mean it!! I can do birds, fine, already. But then, bird sounds, actual in nature bird sounds, are much more various than the very particular songbird tunes that people are referencing when they say "bird sounds." Hey! It's like the minimalism thing, isn't it. There are several types of minimal music, but the only one ever referenced is the repetitious kind.*)

*Sorry. A little ride around the paddock on the old hobby horse, there. Sorry.


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## Guest (Nov 26, 2015)

Richannes Wrahms said:


> I don't agree with this definition of music. Soil is not a tomato.


I don't agree with this analogy. Sounds are not soil. (Either that, or both soil and tomatoes are indispensable elements of horticulture--and then it's horticulture that is equivalent to music, not fruits.


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## Richannes Wrahms (Jan 6, 2014)

Horticulture is not cooking.


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## Guest (Nov 26, 2015)

Ah. I had not fully divined the focus of your metaphor.


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## Guest (Nov 26, 2015)

I'm glad somebody's keeping up.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Richannes Wrahms ruined my thread


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I used to enjoy the sound of kids playing in the park. Now they're all indoors playing with their phones. I too enjoy the sounds of the city combined with the sights and smells. The pleasant aromas, that is. But not during a sanitation workers strike!


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> Richannes Wrahms ruined my thread


Wrahms ruins everyone's threads.


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## Richannes Wrahms (Jan 6, 2014)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> Richannes Wrahms ruined my thread


awww .


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## Rapide (Oct 11, 2011)

Richannes Wrahms said:


> I don't agree with this definition of music. Soil is not a tomato.


Correct, noise is not music either. It may be for some perverted ears but noise ain't music.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

We should all be striving for World Piece.

Has nobody said that yet?


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## Ilarion (May 22, 2015)

clavichorder said:


> We should all be striving for World Piece.
> 
> Has nobody said that yet?


*World Piece*

How very pithy - 100 points for you, clavichorder...:tiphat:


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

It's completely without pier.


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## Guest (Nov 27, 2015)

Morimur said:


> Wrahms ruins everyone's threads.


Thus spake Wrahms: "meh."


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## rrudolph (Sep 15, 2011)

violadude said:


> Also, I feel like I'm in the super minority here but I actually really enjoy industrial city sounds. Cities excite me.


One of my favorite student memories is of a time when I was performing Cage's 27' 10.554" For A Percussionist in my school's recital hall (MANY years ago!). The school was located near the center of Philadelphia and the hall had three large French doors at the front which opened onto the street. I opened these before my performance. During the first long silence of the piece, a couple of people walked by having a conversation that was audible but not so loud that the audience was distracted by what they were saying.They faded in then out perfectly as they came and went. Later in the performance, during a more active part of the piece, I was lucky enough to get a long police siren that occured a block or two away. It too was a perfect occurrence that left many in the audience smiling. Many other smaller sounds which could never have been planned or repeated came and went, mixing with my intentionally made sounds (non-intentionally composed by Cage) and creating a musical moment in time that was unique. The result was a memorable experience of focused awareness for both myself and some members of my audience.


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## Gordontrek (Jun 22, 2012)

I'm still waiting for Dover to publish the score to the planet Earth.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

The light music of whiskey falling into a glass.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

A lot of us are playing the wrong notes.


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## Guest (Nov 30, 2015)

Cities, as in lots of people and pollution and poverty and such, really suck.

Cities, as in masterworks of architecture and engineering and business, are my jams, brah.

City sounds, as in Lopez's _Buildings (New York)_ and Godflesh's _Streetcleaner_ and Throbbing Gristle and such... GIMME.


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## Abraham Lincoln (Oct 3, 2015)

Did threads like this get ComposerOfAvantGarde banned?


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

science said:


> A lot of us are playing the wrong notes.


I'm playing all the _right_ notes. Though not necessarily in the right order.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Nereffid said:


> I'm playing all the _right_ notes. Though not necessarily in the right order.


Rubbish!

. . . . . . .


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## Ilarion (May 22, 2015)

science said:


> A lot of us are playing the wrong notes.


And some are de-composing


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

I live in the mountains and spend a lot of time in the wilderness, usually off trail, and in my outings I have had some truly magical sonic experiences. One of the most memorable was hiking in the winter on six inches of crunchy snow (The day before there had been a thaw and then an overnight freeze). It was a sunny, frigid morning and I was moving up slope through dense thickets of balsam fir and red spruce. If you are familiar with this kind of forest, you will know that countless dead twigs and thin branches, no longer bearing foliage, project from the trunks of the mature trees, and moving at all entails pushing though nets of this dead wood. So what I heard was a rhythmic crunching below, with accents on one and three (krr-ruff, krr-ruff, krr-ruff. krr-ruff), and above, numerous frozen twigs breaking, with pops, snaps, and thunks that sounded like a xylophone with a very broad pitch range. I've often wished I had sampled these sounds and used them as the basis of a musical composition. The effect was hypnotic and fascinating in the otherwise still air.

Another favorite sound is best heard on night hikes in the snow, when one can hear flakes and ice crystals sifting and hissing through the pine needles — It is dead silent out here and there is virtually no ground light.

And then moving water and cascades, especially when their gulps and splashes are refracted off of rock faces in the deep gullies and gorges that are so common here.

And, of course, the songs of the winter wrens and thrushes. If you have never heard a winter wren, its song is the most complex and varied I have ever heard, fluting up and down in a wide range and never repeating exactly the same song, at least as far as I can tell. Like thirty or forty notes per song.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> Sit yourself down anywhere in the world.
> 
> Close your eyes, and open your ears....
> 
> ...


You are the new John Cage!


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> So cool to see a non-controversial thread about 4'33" with the actual content of each post about the true intention of the piece.


Maybe the controversy arises because we are all secretly jealous of our private consciousness, and we resent John Cage for getting royalties from it. Let's all do a class action suit.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

Steve Vai could hear all voices as pitches, and could transcribe them as notation, as in Zappa's voice on The Dangerous Kitchen. So, hearing everything as music is a serious pursuit, not just "zen." 

Rhythm: Mick Goodrich in The Advancing Guitarist suggests imagining a pulse, then hearing every sound event which occurs in relation to that pulse, so that if you wanted, you could transcribe it as rhythm. So yes, this is a serious musical idea, and has begun to be explored.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

In broadcasting, and in speech, they are aware of possible monotony of voices, and the need to vary the pitch contour to avoid this. Really, we are all aware of this quality of voices, even if we don't acknowledge it fully.


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## Guest (Dec 3, 2015)

millionrainbows said:


> Steve Vai could hear all voices as pitches, and could transcribe them as notation, as in Zappa's voice on The Dangerous Kitchen. So, hearing everything as music is a serious pursuit, not just "zen."
> 
> Rhythm: Mick Goodrich in The Advancing Guitarist suggests imagining a pulse, then hearing every sound event which occurs in relation to that pulse, so that if you wanted, you could transcribe it as rhythm. So yes, this is a serious musical idea, and has begun to be explored.


Music = Pitch = Frequency = Sound
Music = Rhythm = Duration = Time

It's all very simple, really.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

EdwardBast said:


> If you have never heard a winter wren, its song is the most complex and varied I have ever heard, fluting up and down in a wide range and never repeating exactly the same song, at least as far as I can tell. Like thirty or forty notes per song.


And all those notes on one breath! Where does such a tiny creature store all that air? It sounds as if you live in the northeast (New England?), but winter wrens also breed in the Northwest coast forests, which are so luxuriant that the most profound "music" is created by the absorption of sound in deep cushions of moss. Usually all that can be heard are the tiny, ethereal peeps of Kinglets and chickadees high in the firs and hemlocks, and the occasional, startling outpouring of the tiny, mouse-brown winter wren, perched with cocked tail on a giant mossy stump.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> And all those notes on one breath! Where does such a tiny creature store all that air? It sounds as if you live in the northeast (New England?), but winter wrens also breed in the Northwest coast forests, which are so luxuriant that the most profound "music" is created by the absorption of sound in deep cushions of moss. Usually all that can be heard are the tiny, ethereal peeps of Kinglets and chickadees high in the firs and hemlocks, and the occasional, startling outpouring of the tiny, mouse-brown winter wren, perched with cocked tail on a giant mossy stump.


I live in the Adirondack Mountains of New York, a young, still rising range formed by the billion-year old-foundation rock of the continent. Red spruce and balsam fir are a major part of the biomass here. But we also have stands of old-growth hemlocks (my favorite trees here, along with the cedars.) Chickadees are everywhere as well, including outside on my deck right now where they are competing with the squirrels at my allegedly squirrel-proof feeder.


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## Guest (Dec 5, 2015)

TradeMark said:


> all I can I hear is the sound of my fan and computer running.


Living on a suburban estate we call "Zombieland", the computer fan, and behind it, the warm air central heating fan, are the most prominent sounds I can hear. I have neighbours - but only hear their cars, never their conversation. The gales raging today make the letter box flap, occasionally sufficiently organised to imitate someone at the door. Like some guy, tinnitus in the left ear can only be ignored if I'm busy or listening to music, so it makes a third drone accompaniment to the fans.

You know those meditative exercises that might begin with, or end with, "Now, listen to the sound of your breathing..."

Well, I can't hear my own breathing...should I be worried?


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## Ilarion (May 22, 2015)

If I were to use the analogy *Architecture is Frozen Music*, then, wherever we live can be likened to a Tone Poem of both massive scale and almost infinite detail and quite often like visualizations of complex Fractal Patterns.


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