Pauline Oliveros - Lear

My initial thoughts when seeing the title “Lear” were of the well-known play “King Lear,” where the eponymous ageing monarch is obsessed with absolute power and flattery. Therefore, I was looking forward to a type of courtly orchestral music full of majesty and passion before listening to this piece, a 25-minute-long story analogously concerning power and choice.

However, even though the reverberation of the instrument set a dignified atmosphere, I was surprised by the initial tone.  “Lear” brought me into a novel world which I’ve never been to before, a place where I can see a vast and endless valley, soaring mountain ranges surrounded and nobody present but me. I became perplexed and wandered around the vast space, yelling yet receiving no response. My mood shifted to one of insignificant compared to the magnificent nature. Afterward, I calmed down and pondered things with the tones resonating. I felt trapped by a giant cage, yet, I didn’t plan on escaping, to my surprise. With the rumbling sound getting rising, a sense of drowning, repression, or suffocation approached and made me a little short of breath. Shortly after, I advanced into a soothing place and gradually stopped looking around and contemplating. Time appeared to be fully standing still, and what accompanied me was merely placidity in such a spacious area.

We all know that Pauline formulates a revolutionary and advanced way of experiencing sounds, which she called deep listening. According to her, sound is not simply the vibrations that travel through the air, or controlled pitch and timbre; the sound of nature, of people’s individual thoughts regarding their daily life, of everything that people experience and able to provoke consciousness means a great deal and can’t be overlooked. Hence, Pauline utilised attentive exercises and the idea of mediation in her musical compositions. “Lear” is a saliently and otherworldly meditative piece emerging from this technique. Based on my personal listening experience, I enjoyed the whole wandering and reflective process and acquired a unique method when connecting sounds to mundane things.