Pauline Oliveiros: Lear – A Journey through Space

Pauline Oliveiros’ “Lear“ requires real deep listening to get to know the piece in all of its facets. For me, this was quite challenging since the piece 25 minutes long. However, I was encouraged to do so and to participate in this kind of experiment for myself to find out what real deep listening does to me. Usually, I just hear things and perceive them somehow, but the deep listening experience was different in terms of the images which were created in my head and the feelings which were linked to them.

 

First of all, I had no expectations when listening to “Lear” for the first time. The piece starts off really calm and quiet which made it easy for me to follow it and marked a, in my personal opinion, nicely sounding beginning. The shift between crescendo and decrescendo changed very slowly and created tension in me which can be describes as similar to the beginning of a movie. Immediately, the image of space came up in my mind, and I thought that this piece, especially the beginning, would be adequate for a space movie. Additionally, some parts really gave me Star Wars vibes which is why I could already see spaceships flying around in my imagination. 

The deep listening also led me to the question which instruments were used to create this “spacy” feeling. I thought that it would probably sound nice if the piece was played by an orchestra, but I could not figure out, which exact instruments Oliveiros used to create the piece. However, which instrument really stood out for me was the digeridoo since this is an instrument I am not used to hearing in the music I usually listen to.

After listening to the piece for a while, it became a bit redundant for me since there was not much variety in instruments, melody and atmosphere. I still liked listening to it because it gave me a calm, relaxing vibe, but I noticed that playing close attention was getting more and more difficult. However, I was still fascinated by the different layers created by the music which were put together really well so that it creates a coherent picture. 

Around minute 12, I noticed that the atmosphere was somehow changing. Some instruments got louder and it sounded like some kind of danger was near which, again, really reminded me of a space movie. It created the feeling in me that I had to watch out for anything, but after this part, the music got calmer again, and the atmosphere from before returned. Continuing the deep listening “exercise”, I noticed that these “danger” parts started to interrupt the peaceful atmosphere quite frequently, but somehow, this made it easier for me to keep listening closely since there was more variety at this point. 

Closely to the ending of the piece, the atmosphere changed again and gave me the feeling that something bad or creepy was happening. I could not figure out why this part was included since it was literally at the end of the piece and consequently, the piece left me with unsolved questions.

 

All in all, although it took me 25 minutes to listen to “Lear”, I liked listening to it and to challenge myself with the deep listening. I think that listening to it had a meditative character for me since I am not used to listening to pieces which are that long, especially if it is this special kind of music.