Category: Blog Postings

In Bowie’s “Sounds and Vision”, there were different instruments to follow, but Beck’s took the cake in being an array of sounds.  The retelling of Bowie’s “Sounds and Vision” was greater in size, but I  wouldn’t call it the better version. Although I found Beck’s version to be visually stunning and beautiful, I got overwhelmed by the intensity of the sound. I was amazed by some elements in Beck’s performance of the piece. He combined different elements from different genres and connected and made all the pieces fit and created something that I would compare to a well-oiled machine. I saw gospel singers, guitarists, and a string orchestra play with what looked to be brass instruments and an acoustic guitar. I applaud Beck’s performance, but I prefer the original. The best cover for a David Bowie song is Nirvana’s “The Man Who Sold the World”.

The nature of Jazz is improvisation that builds off one another in a group. From what I expected to be disjointed was very organized and congruent in the Latin Jazz Concert at Lehman. The individuals performing showed their skills in their solo pieces, and I think this stood out most in “Super Ray”. Although I found it difficult to follow individual instrumental groups in the band, the sounds did come together in harmony like jazz.

Despite the large number of instruments and musicians used in Beck’s composition, it was still fairly simple to follow along the different sections of instruments that he included, since they all had their own parts and blended smoothly into or with each other. Similar to Latin Jazz, there were multiple parts and instruments. The ensemble was composed of 157 musicians and included gospel singers, orchestral strings, electric guitars, piano, marimbas, the saw, Chinese percussion,  Latin percussion, yodeling and so much more; in the case of what instruments were present, the question to ask is not “what instruments were included?”, but rather “what instruments weren’t included?”. 

Compared to the original Sound and Vision, Beck’s remake was truly epic and nostalgic. Even though I have listened to some of Bowie’s music before, this was actually my first time listening to this song as well as the remake, which Beck made back in 2013. The song was originally released in 1977 and having heard it now in 2017, 40 years later, it felt like a proper tribute to the late David Bowie. The grand size of the orchestra also added to this feeling as it shows how music can connect anyone no matter what background they come from, or what they specialize in, and this is especially true of David Bowie as he also had fans from all over the world. He truly captured the “sound and vision” of the song and furthered it even more.

While not being an actual jazz piece, Beck’s remake can be considered a tribute to jazz since it brings together various instruments and also includes a bit of improvisation during the breaks from each different section. The aspect that I think this fully incorporates is the bringing together of different cultures, as was the case when jazz was beginning to gain popularity.

In the original version of “Sounds and Vision” by Bowie, there were all these different instruments that you could detect separately, but it was a bit more difficult when listening to the spinoff version by Beck. There were similar instruments and sounds used in Beck’s version, but without visuals I may not have been able to identify them. The original version of the song is a pretty standard song, nothing too special or overboard. However, the reimagined version by Beck has a sort of illusion of grandeur in it. It’s for the most part the same exact song, but adding all these other elements, parts, and the orchestra makes it appear as if it is something much more grand and what you would typically find at some sort of fancy, high class show.

The Latin Jazz performance consisted of different people playing different instruments that seemed to not have anything to do with each other. Everyone appeared to simply be solo and doing whatever they wanted to do. Yet eventually, each part came together with the others and produced something that was connected and organized, even though it originally felt like they had no relation whatsoever. Beck’s rendition of the song was very similar to this, with different parts coming in at different times, but they would all end up falling in to place and creating one unanimous sound.

Bowie’s original version of “Sound and Vision” was concise. Even though the song consisted of many instrumental and vocal parts, the piece was stripped down to the essentials. Beck’s version of “Sound and Vision” contained the same lyrics and vocalization as Bowie’s original, but Beck’s version expanded on Bowie’s theme which gave the audience a more intense experience of Bowie’s concept.

 

When I listened to Beck’s symphonic version of “Sound and Vision” I was struck by how incongruent all the parts making up the piece seemed. I never thought of a gospel choir, a singer/guitarist, and an orchestra all performing the same music before. The multitude of performers in Beck’s version of “Sound and Vision” was overwhelming, but somehow all the discordant parts worked together to form a harmonious whole.

 

When we attended the Latin Jazz concert at Lehman, I noticed how the performers often just “did their own thing,” or seemed to be playing whatever they wanted to during their solo. At first, all the solos seemed separate from one another, like they were not even part of the same song, but eventually all the parts came together in unison during the chorus. When I noticed how all the parts of Beck’s version of “Sound and Vision” joined together, it reminded me of the musical connections I heard in the Latin Jazz concert.

“The only way people can really describe pain is to objectify it.”

One of my favorite songs, “Iris” by the Goo Goo Dolls has a line saying “Yeah, you bleed just to know you’re alive”. Pain is an essential part of being human. It helps us to grow and learn from our mistakes. Without it, people can end up causing excessive harm to themselves physically, mentally, and spiritually without realizing it.  

Pain is usually associated with a physical feeling. When I first read this quote I immediately thought of patients in a hospital having to describe their level of pain using the pain chart showing different levels of discomfort/aggression. Even emotional pain (ex. heartbreak) is expressed through actions such as crying.  

 

“When people forge tools or build things, they are often trying to alleviate discomfort. But first they must define the discomfort”

In high school I took business and scientific research classes. When deciding on a business plan or research project, my teachers always told me to look for a solution to a problem. Discomfort provides inspiration and reason for a creator to go “outside the box”. Without discomfort, people have no reason to change. As a creator, I have to take into account other people’s perspective to successfully portray the right emotion in a work of art or address a given issue.

“The only way people can really describe pain is to objectify it.”

 

Pain is essential for creativity since we are forced to take our imagination and interpretation of the pain we experience and assign it to something we can relate to or have physically experienced. Art is something that is always physically experienced, whether it is music or a marble sculpture. And as I said it at the start of the semester when we had to define the purpose and meaning of art – it is a way to deliver a message across though a visual or acoustic presentation. Thus, in order for artist to create something symbolically powerful and that we as spectators can feel too, the artist must take their painful emotions in this case, and make them into something tangible, essentially objectify the pain.

 

“When people forge tools or build things, they are often trying to alleviate discomfort. But they first must define the discomfort.”

 

In the context of art, and how I mentioned before that it can serve as a method to deliver a message: Discomfort can either be physical or emotional. People can feel oppressed, threatened, or just feel left out. By using art as a tool do express their emotions and perhaps even support those in a similar situation, who are so withered away from their struggles that they do not bother trying to seek help, artists can help alleviate the discomfort. One of the best examples of this can be songs that speak to people with certain issues in life. Any kind of change in motion of an object is only present if there is an external and unbalanced force acting on it – Newton’s first law. This can easily be elaborated onto pain and how it’s a source of inspiration for artists.

“The only way people can really describe pain is to objectify it.” I have heard before that we do lose a little bit of meaning when we try to represent a theme in a visual work or in writing. We discussed this in class too. Writing does not fully capture what we want to say. It is difficult for us to use language to describe something in a way others understand. This limitation can go for other art forms too. The article challenged me to think about how when we talk about pain, we usually use the objects that caused the pain as adjectives or verbs. It also made think about the objects that were created to alleviate pain. A Chair, for example, is not what I think of when I think of art, and an object invented to make us weightless. Objects like chairs do represent pain and our willingness to ease pain, rather than to endure it. “When people forge tools or build things, they are often trying to alleviate discomfort. But first, they must define the discomfort” We had to first feel discomfort for us to create a chair. We must first experience pain for us to represent it. It is true that when people build something or forge tools, they are usually trying to ease the pain. Because of this explanation, I understand how pain fuels production and creativity. Not only objects but many people need to write their pain, in a diary for example. Maybe we want other people to understand our pain so we create something to do that. Maybe we want to help others resolve or alleviate a painful situation. Maybe a pain is so universal we must make into an object of art for people to observe.

The  two quotes I found interesting are: “The only way people can really describe pain is to objectify it.” and “When people forge tools or build things, they are often trying to alleviate discomfort. But first they must define the discomfort”

“The only way people can really describe pain is to objectify it.”

What intrigued be about this quote is that I interpreted it as it saying that in order to create a work with meaning behind it and also shows you put dedication and hard work (pain) into it, you must manipulate it yourself and shape it to however you want without fear of changing what it was originally  meant to be.  Often times in creating art, artists are faced with hurdles that they themselves place for themselves and it is up to them to overcome them and rise from it to create something new and innovative.

This part of the article challenged me as a creator because I realized that one must look beyond the value of things and instead treat them as objects because when creating something new, anything can be used as a material or source of inspiration. I didn’t see this as a negative thing where it’s telling me to oppress everything I see or touch, but rather to stay aware of what’s around me because anything can be used to create or inspire art.

“When people forge tools or build things, they are often trying to alleviate discomfort. But first they must define the discomfort”

The way I interpreted this quote is that an artists creates something based on what they think they, or people around them need. However, the important part is determining what the “need” aspect is. It could be an emotional need and the artist creates an emotional piece to respond to it, such as creating a sad song after a break up, or when the Romans created their enormous arches to immortalize their triumphs over their enemies in war. Either way, feeling some kind of want or discomfort usually tends to cause for something new to be created in order for that desire to be fulfilled.

As a creator, this quote shows me that to create something new, I don’t only have to look at what’s around me, but also within myself and what I may want to change in me, or in the world, and to channel that desire to create something new.

“When people forge tools or build things, they are often trying to alleviate discomfort. But first they must define the discomfort.”

 

I think the discomfort that fuels creation is often subconscious. When I create something, a drawing, a piece of writing, or a meal, I never think “I am doing this to alleviate discomfort.” In my mind, I’m creating because I have something to show, or to say, or I’m just hungry. If I didn’t draw, or write, or eat I would be in a state of discomfort, and it is possible to argue that discomfort ultimately fuels creation. There is more to creation than pure discomfort. The joy of creating something also plays a role.

 

“the sculpture [of Laocoon] didn’t change, but the idea of pain and justice did”

 

This shows how great art can be reinterpreted over time, and still remain meaningful. The truth is, it is impossible to look at a historical work of art and see it in the way it was seen when it was first created. We see everything through 21^st century eyes and understand art in the context of our time. The Laocoon sculpture was originally meant to be an image of a man who deserved to be tortured, but now we see the sculpture as an expression of horrific pain and suffering. No matter the interpretation, the sculpture is still a striking work.