I’m not sure if I know where to start with this journal because this performance left me a little bit confused. For my first performance I watched, I saw Light and Perspective, which was a contemporary music performance, and I can honestly say I’ve never seen anything quite like it. There were only 3 instruments used in this performance – flute, piano, clarinet, and some of the pieces were accompanied by electronic sounds and visuals. I don’t think I know how to fully appreciate contemporary music because I don’t really know anything about the practices and techniques, or anything about it at all, really. I can just talk about how each piece and the entire concert made me feel and what I thought of everything because it was all very abstract to me, which I guess is kind of the point of this particular genre. It is supposed to disrupt the norm and be unexpected? How was this music supposed to make me feel? Is there a definite answer?
As soon as the first piece began, I was completely thrown off because I went into the performance not expecting anything, so when the performer started playing, I realized that I wasn’t expecting that. There were a lot of cacophonous sounds and sounds that clashed with each other and it was all very sudden and sharp. The second piece, played on the piano, was accompanied by a video of the inside of an empty home, showing random shots of different features or appliances. The musician, Megumi, also talked while she played so it sounded almost like spoken word, the piano and the talking was very subdued, and accompanied with the video, it felt almost a little bit uncomfortable and haunting. She also did something I have never seen before, where she would stand up and touch the inside of the piano to get a different effect, and that was really interesting to me because I had never really thought about the piano being used in such a way. It is a very creative and unusual thing to do and I wonder how somebody decided to make this a part of a way to play piano.
The third piece, “Displaced Light,” sounded very much like running through a jungle because of the sound effects that accompanied the flute. The flute itself was very airy and sounded I guess from watching movies and TV shows, I have come to associate that sound with exploration and adventure that takes place in a jungle setting. The final piece I got to watch, “Spark and Sizzle,” was very energetic and the visual of different light beams shooting across the screen behind the musicians really added to the movement of the piece because of how the colours, speed, and direction of the sparks matched the music. It was like a visual representation of what was being played. I think if I were to watch another contemporary music performance, I will still be pretty confused, and still not know what to expect, but I’m sure it will be a very different experience because of the wide range this genre has the ability to cover.