Prompt VII ✧

Select one listening example from anywhere in the Ratliff text that you don't know particularly well. You can select any piece at all, however there would be some advantage in picking something that is 5 mins or under. Block off a minimum of 30-40 minutes, ideally more, and exclusively listen to your chosen selection, specifically "repeated listening." Over and over, listen to your selection. Put the phone away. Submit to the music. Don't do anything else in this time you create for yourself except listen. In approximately 200 words, describe your experience. What changed for you over repeated listenings? What new perspectives did you attain? The implied social contract of us sitting in a darkened room together where the chairs face the stage to handle the responsibility of listening to music is in real peril. If we, as a group of people in a music appreciation class, are unable to sit in the illusion of silence and take in a piece of music, then what is the point of our time together? All the work we put into our art may or may not resonate with the folks we are offering it to. But if our own keen senses of attention and awareness are dulled, then this really is all for nothing. Take ownership of your ability and willingness to find and make connections.

My selection: Lover Man by Sarah Vaughan

I chose my selection by flipping through the chapters I had read so far, looking up songs until I found one under 5 minutes. I had to try about 10 times before I found a song short enough for typical radio play, that song being Lover Man. I did not check what chapter I had retrieved it from, and I could not recall.

The first listen
Having seen the album cover dressed in the apparent fashion of 50's pop, I was afraid the song would be boring to me-- boring, to me of all people, from this fascinating text? I was foreseeably incorrect. Nonetheless, stll in this mindset, the first notes of the vocal line following some piano jazz chords made me think, "Okay, I know what I'm in for," dismissively. I kept listening, ready for the song to prove me wrong (as I love for music to do). Within 10 more seconds, the groove of the song took hold of me. Dragging my conciousness. I immediately thought- "Slowness. This has to be from slowness. The singer sounds like she has not a care in the world, like nothing exists outside of the piece. She sounds so free of tension at a gravitational tempo, it's taunting my velocity." I fought the urge to immediately check. After the first listen, however, I had to check out of curiosity that it might be something else. I found that it was slowness, and Ratliff's description was strikingly similar to what I had heard (perhaps I had subconciously internalized it). I also found the song sounded strikingly empty and barren-- the first few listens.

After an hour of repeat listening
The song sounds incredibly full and ornamented. The vocal melody sounds dreamy and musically independent, and the soft piano has lost any sense of cliche as it reveals its unique voice to me. Particularly in the introduction and towards the end, the piano's gentle pushing rhythm reveals the tension the relaxed vocals deny. During the entire song, the piano's harmonic quality embraces tension, decorating the dominating vocal line with understated questions. The minimal taps of drums increasing in consistency by the smallest increment in the final quarter of the song are all that's needed to heighten energy in the groove at the end. The vocalist's sparing use of artful variations in intonation and phrasing is compelling and commendable.