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Thurston Moore and the Grandmother of Noise, Maryanne Amacher
06.20.2013
02:18 pm
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Maryanne Amacher was, like Alvin Lucier, La Monte Young and others, another of the avant garde composers who gave birth to the modern “noise” movement. Unlike most of these musical pioneers, however, Amacher deliberately created compositions that had a high likelihood of really driving you away. You see, Amacher focused on special tones that had a unique property: When certain tones are played, the human ear will tend to resonate with them and, as a result, it will feel as if someone is directly thumping on your ears with their fingers. It’s pretty disturbing if you’re not used to it. Even if you ARE used to it the effect is still pretty disturbing.

Here’s what Amacher said of her “3rd ear” compositions:

When played at the right sound level, which is quite high and exciting, the tones in this music will cause your ears to act as neurophonic instruments that emit sounds that will seem to be issuing directly from your head ... (my audiences) discover they are producing a tonal dimension of the music which interacts melodically, rhythmically, and spatially with the tones in the room. Tones ‘dance’ in the immediate space of their body, around them like a sonic wrap, cascade inside ears, and out to space in front of their eyes ... Do not be alarmed! Your ears are not behaving strange or being damaged! ... these virtual tones are a natural and very real physical aspect of auditory perception, similar to the fusing of two images resulting in a third three dimensional image in binocular perception ... I want to release this music which is produced by the listener ..

Maryanne Amacher passed away in 2009. John Zorn’s incredible Tzadik label has released two CD compilations of her work.

Some of these “3rd ear” noise ideas made it into Glenn Branca’s work and, from there, into Thurston Moore and Sonic Youth’s music as well. Indeed, here’s Thurston Moore hanging with Amacher: I find it endearing that he appears to be trying hard to act cool in the company of such a wondrous artist. Note that to hear the 3rd ear effect you have to turn the volume up quite a bit:
 

Posted by Em
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06.20.2013
02:18 pm
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