Hearing Things

1991
Ron Kuivila
Uses music, interviews, and other sonic specimens in a meditation on the unheard and the unhearable. An example of unheard sound is found in the 5 Hertz chirp produced at irregular intervals by the Tappan Zee Bridge. More figuratively, there is the Foley artist, who carefully crafts "misheard" sound effects. And, on the most abstract level, there is the contingency of "musical meaning." What, for instance, is hidden in the Kreutzer Sonata that it could trigger marital rape on the part of both Tolstoy and Mahler? What in Brahms, that it could render a parking lot mugger free? And what in Easy Listening, that it could empty a 7-11 of punk teenagers? Commissioned by New American Radio.