Name/Collaborator: Travis WestTitle of class: EAST 205Date of class: October 7 2014Date submitted: Nov 1 2014

Key terms and definitions [5 15 words each]:Anecdotal Composition: A composition where the sounds are used representatively, rather than abstractly.Yves Daoust: A Canadian electroacoustic composer. An important figure in the Montreal electroacoustic scene.

Secondary terms and definitions [5 15 words each]:

Sources accessed [Name;URL]:www.ears.dmu.ac.uk/spip.php?rubrique146http://www.ears.dmu.ac.uk/spip.php?rubrique146

Electroacoustic Music Studies Networkhttp://www.ems-network.org/spip.php?article333

Yves Daoust - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yves_Daoust

Yves Daoust, composer // Biography electrocd.com The Electroacoustic Music Storehttp://www.electrocd.com/en/bio/daoust_yv/

Mi bmol YMX mdia / YUL mdiahttp://www.ymxmedia.com/en/oeuvres/fiches/m/i/mi-bemol-daoust.php

Oka Crisis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oka_Crisis

YouTube Videos watched:

Graphics [title, URL]:

Executive Summary: Bells, Playground, Cheering, Oka, Fireworks, Thunder, Anecdotal, Juxtaposition, Spaces, Textures

BellsRhythmMelody

00'00"000 - Section 1, bells play soli00'01"019 - Bells play a rhythmic gesture in the right 8 times.00'11"399 - Bells enters in the left , and play a melodic gesture which is a variation of the main rhythmic gesture.

These basic bell sounds and variations on them are the common thread throughout the piece. They act like a guide to keep the listener comfortable as Daoust explores sounds and spaces which cannot normally be juxtaposed.

This section is in a null space. No space is supposed to exist through the audio.

PlaygroundSwing setChildrenlaughter00'33"011 - Section 2, the playground. A dramatic flourish of bell sounds in several octaves articulates the beginning of the section- Bells in the right diminuendo, play the rhythmic gesture, becoming inaudible at about 55"- Bells in the left trill for the duration of this section- A squeaking sound like a rusty swing set is heard. There is a high low squeak pattern, made up of six unique squeaks in a sequence which repeat twice fully and once more to the fourth squeak.00'38"471, a reverse attack bell sound acts like an epilogue to the major articulation.- The voices of children enter at this point as well. There doesn't seem to be a repeating point, though some vocal gestures sound extremely similar, so the section may be pieced together from various shorter vocal gestural pieces.00'55"804 - An impulse sound, reminiscent of a string being plucked, foreshadows the next major articulation.

This section is in an outside space.

CheeringChantingSpinningSproing!Shimmering00'58"082 - Section 3, the crowd. Another flourish of bells, featuring a more compact version of the melodic gesture from the beginning and a rapidly descending gesture articulates this section- The sound of cheering and chanting of a crowd - A propeller like spinning sound in the right which gradually slows down in tempo until the next major articulation.01'02"417 - A rising spring-like gesture is followed by a new melodic gesture of bells in the left, and a descending shimmering sound.

This section is in an outside space. One might imagine a stadium.

Between this and the last sections there is a connection of play, between the playground and the apparent sporting event. Ideas about growing old, and the changing landscapes and size of space are evoked in this relationship.

RadioOka CrisisTappingCracklingSnappingSingingGolf CourseSacred CeremonyChords01'07"635 - The same bell gesture as began section 2 begins section 4, the radio.- Radio voices regarding the Oka Crisis. A more muffled voice sounds in French in the background. - Various bell and wooden tapping sounds.- An important melodic gesture becomes established, which is heard repeatedly until the thunder clap.01'11"481 - Singing voices are heard briefly in the background.01'18"412 - The swing set squeaks reprise.- This section is in an indoor space, or perhaps no space. 01'33"801 - The phrase This is happening over a golf course" is echoed, articulating a subsection of 4, section 5- The trilling bells are heard clearly now.- The squeaks continue.- A chordal gesture rocks between two harmonic formations.

Placing the creaking swing set next to the high tension inherent in the Oka Crisis draws to mind loss of innocence, or an adult in solitary contemplation.

This section seems to be in an outside space.

FireworksShouting

01'46"371 - A variation on the Section 2 articulation, without the pre-emptive swell, which ends with a rising tail articulates section 6, fireworks.- Fireworks, shouting and exclaiming voices, and whistling.- A variation on the rocking melodic gesture, with more transient articulation.- The section 2 articulation now used as a simple gesture.- The shimmering gesture from section 3.

The celebratory sounds in this section offer some release of the conceptual tension of the earlier section, while at the same time it is the sonic climax of the piece with the greatest loudness and widest balance of frequencies.

This section is in an outside space.

ThunderRainViolinBirdsCowsCrowsFin02'09"132 - Section 7, outside, is articulated by thunder.- The shimmering continues.- Rain fades out by 02"35"- Plucked string sounds.- Birds chirping- Cows mooing.- A crow cawing.- The first rhythmic bell gesture fades into the foreground.

In this section all tension is released, and the listener is invited by the soothing sounds of nature to just relax. This is the denouement of the piece, and completes the stereotypical form which Daoust describes in the program notes for this piece. (http://www.ymxmedia.com/en/oeuvres/fiches/m/i/mi-bemol-daoust.php)

This section is in an outside space.

02'55"655 - A cadential ba-dum of bells marks the end of the piece.

Sound Program Note:Mi Bemol is a composition by Yves Daoust structured around a bell like sound on the note Eb. This sound is used to make a variety of melodic and rhythmic motifs which run throughout the piece. All around this central sound, Daoust explores some of the sounds of Quebec, including a playground, a sports event, a radio broadcast, fireworks, and some natural sounds such as rain and thunder, and various animals.Meaning Program Note:Mi Bemol is an anecdotal composition by Yves Daoust which juxtaposes various sounds from around Quebec. Celebratory and festive sounds from a sporting event, and Montreal's International Fireworks Competition are contrasted against a sobering radio broadcast covering the Oka Crisis of 1990. Daoust offers the listener insight into the complexity of Montreal and Quebec through these sounds.

See Images for more detailed analysis.

Personal Comments: This report really span out of control for me. It seems that the objective in this kind of analysis is to listen very very closely, and to be able to express to others what I hear, in text and with annotated sonograms and amplitude time graphs. I very quickly began to feel overwhelmed with the amount of detail that can be expressed. I stopped just short of transcribing every sound visually using Eanalysis, essentially creating a visual score of the piece, due to time constraints. Frustratingly, I feel like the analysis I have provided is often only surface deep, especially in the sonograms, where I essentially just point out the features of the piece. I could do this in even more detail. I could have done this again using amplitude time graphs. I could have transcribed the bell gestures in standard music notation. I'm not sure that any of this kind of analysis would actually reveal anything about the deeper meaning of the piece, or what makes it tick; this is all just observational. Does this count as analytic? It seems that in the class tutorial on analysis, this kind of detailed observation is all that we did.I suppose this frustration is somewhat held over from doing jazz and harmonic analysis for years, which is also largely just about making observations. Now it's a ii-V-I, and Red Garland outlines the extended arpeggio with a passing tone through the sixth. In what way does this kind of careful observation help us to understand what's going on? It is essentially just the mechanical pointing to the thing and saying its name. This is an apple. This is an orange. This is a bell sound with a percieved pitch of Eb.All this said, I feel like this is all very useful, and I enjoy doing it very much. I'm just not sure why...