"To move the work is to destroy the work." ~ Richard Serra

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Site-Specificity in Music

Though not as common as other mediums, music can also be site-specific. Various music composers have written pieces with the intention that they would be played in a specific space, requiring a certain number of vocalists, stringed instruments, brass and wind instruments and so on in order to appropriately fill the particular space with their music. John Schaefer, a talk show host for WNYC, comments: "These days most music is made in a studio, or if it's being played live, it's made in a concert hall, or a club and part of the point seems to be that it's portable, it can easily travel from one place to another, from one club to another, from one concert hall to another. And of course in this day of iPods and other MP3 players, you can take your music virtually anywhere. But some music is meant to be heard in one particular place. Some music is actually meant to be part of one particular place." That music is site-specific. On September 3, 2008, Schaefer's show featured a variety of site-specific musicians. Their music draws from various elements, including noises from their surroundings and the resonances off the walls and ceilings within certain rooms.

A question to consider:
Can site specific music be reproduced?

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