Meredith Monk – „Gotham Lullaby“: Sleep with some minor problems

 

In 2004, Meredith Monk performed “Gotham Lullaby” in the Lensic Centre in Santa Fe, New Mexico. This listening response revolves only around this performance even though the song was composed in 1975.

The first moment I saw the video clip, I was really surprised to see such a simple setup. Due to my experience with avant-garde music, I did not expect something as classic as the piano to be Monk’s instrument of choice; especially when it is the only instrument. She started playing a melody which in my opinion had a soothing sound just like a lullaby is supposed to have. The melody as a standalone would have probably been enough to help me sleep since I found it really relaxing, but Monk then added her voice to it and the relaxing came to an end.

What struck me first is the high pitch of her voice that did not fit the tone I was expecting for this melody. This unease I felt was quickly pushed aside by my attempts to understand what she is singing. It sounded like some Latin language but I could not recognize any words and the more I listened the worse my understanding of her vocals became. The “language” is clearly not supposed to be understood which made the listening quite hard because I could not remember anything reoccurring at had to rely on the melody as some kind of orientation throughout her song.

However, Monk still kept her voice at least in a rhythmic way in harmony with the melody of the piano until about 1:47 when she suddenly breaks the melody with very high pitched singing. It almost sounded like screeching, but still somehow in a controlled way. The breaking of the melody and the singing itself made me feel uncomfortable. It reminded me of the “uncanny valley effect” in aesthetic science: Human beings like other beings or objects more if they show humanoid features. The highest degree is a perfectly healthy human, but anything that is too close to a human but still differs in some way that it cannot be human is described by the uncanny valley. For example, a zombie is very humanoid but lacks the resemblance we need to not feel uncomfortable while watching it because of missing working facial muscles or the strange way of walking.

I will probably not listen to “Gotham Lullaby” to fall asleep; nevertheless, this song shows that the voice can add to the whole piece of music as an instrument. If it is not used as in a-capella music but neither to transport any lyrics, what description other than “instrument” would fit? I cannot find one.