1.12 Listening gallery: time's effect

FURTHER LISTENING: Maurice Ravel's "Bolero" is a seminal example of time strengthening the material. The piece consists of the same melody repeated over and over, each time with heavier orchestration. Alvin Lucier's "I Am Sitting In A Room" is an experimental example of time weakening the material. The composer recorded himself reading a brief text. He then broadcast the recording into a room and recorded it. He took that recording, broadcast it and recorded it. As he repeated this circular process, the fidelity of the recording gradually degraded, until all that was left was the resonance frequency of the room vibrating with the rhythm of his voice.