Meredith Monk – Gotham Lullaby: Mindful chords at the piano

 

Meredith Monk is a minimalist composer as well as a performer and an artist herself. Listening to “Gotham Lullaby” I especially liked the part at the end when there is only the piano playing. The lullaby creates harmony and even though the language of the song seems unknown, I still felt connected rather than distanced to the performance. I think she manages to minimalize the distinction between composer and performer using her vocal style. In her interviews she states that her works should feel like a conversation among a group of friends rather than actual statements. She wants to tear the boundaries down that art may create. Her style in “Gotham Lullaby” makes me feel comfortable and closer to her. Since it is only her and the piano, the setting is minimalist. This leads to a focus on her voice and her vocal language. Her style is morose, it expresses joy and sadness at the same time.

She also explains that music is an art of the body. Every piece she makes creating a world with its own principles. Thus, she invites listeners in these worlds, blurring the walls between audience and performer. Consequently, all people are connected to one another. All walls are melted down, there are no new walls built. That is the reason why art has the power of healing. It melts boundaries, creates a new language which is more intimate than the language we are used to and it invites us to a vocal exploration. At first, I was confused about her style since I concentrated on trying to understand her language which I did not seem to understand. Later, I realized that Monk’s art is not primarily about the lyrics but the emotions it conveys. She seems to invite us into another world and therefore she crosses the boundaries between her and the audience. When listening to her songs we all think of different memories that we relate to the sound. In doing so, she gives the opportunity to strip of our defenses.

Her mindful chords playing the piano raise awareness and let us pause for a moment. Additionally, her unique vocal style transcends boundaries within the room of performance. According to that, art is able to melt walls since it has the power to connect people. Even though we might be separated in our way of thinking and our minds would not cross, music makes us all feel something. Having a similar experience listening to a song, results in forgetting about our differences and rather focusing on our common shared moment. It makes us realize that we all do have feelings which are valid. Monk singing in abstraction expresses that we are not always able to put our emotions into words. Oftentimes, words cannot achieve to carry along this intimacy. When letting go of the words that come to our mind, we can really feel what is going on in our head since we manage to let go of the need to immediately explain our emotions.