Processes in Sound - A Review of Crossings

As I stared at the ceiling of the Houston airport, Murphy's law was all I could think about. We had worked so hard to put together this Lucier tribute concert, now my flight was delayed two hours and I was going to miss the rehearsal. Who could have guessed that delay was a blessing in disguise? I did eventually get to the rehearsal, an hour late, just in time to go over I Am Sitting in a Room with Jay Crutcher. However, we did not get the chance to rehearse Canon, which I played electric guitar in, and did not hear Crossings.

Upon the start of last night's concert, I did not know what to expect from Crossings. I had listened to it through headphones, but listening to a recording of Lucier's music is like eating Taco Bell and saying you know what Mexican food tastes like. Without the acoustic experience of a live performance, it is impossible to understand much of Lucier's work. Waves bounce, sounds are distorted and destroyed, properties of a room are exposed. The same can be said for many works which may, or may not, be considered to fit the "sound mass" label. I've experienced many of these compositions through recordings, but never in concert. What a joy it was! Finally the beauty of harsh dissonance, the trembling of walls, and every emotion from torture to bliss on the faces of audience members were present. It was everything I'd hoped for.

Crossings, a work for small orchestra (16 performers) and slow sweep pure sine oscillator, exploits the musical space between semitones throughout the 7-octave range of the orchestra. Instruments would play semitones apart while the oscillator swept from the lower pitch to the higher. Once the higher pitch had been reached, the lower would drop out and moments of in-tune release was felt. The previous higher pitch would then become the lower pitch as new instruments then joined in a semitone above.

What sounds like a simple process produced a multitude of effects. The beatings of waves slowed and quickened upon the oscillator's ascent to the upper semitone. During the lower range in the beginning of the work, I saw and heard the glass cabinets rattle. As the pitch grew higher, the rattling stopped, but dissonances were harsher than before. When the upper register was reached, the space between semitones was more defined and, oddly enough, less painful to the ear. The piece concluded with piccolos reaching as high as they could for their final pitches and violins bowing nearly inaudibly high harmonics. With the pain of dissonances between instruments and the sweep of the oscillator came restored calm once a unison had been met. More so than any composer could ever do with a dominant-tonic "pull", Lucier's Crossings achieves the dichotomous effect of tension/release in the most primitive and beautiful ways.