HEAR

This initial metallic sound, this cymbal or crotale, is a sonic call to awaken. 

Often associated with meditative practices, the brightness here mimics an eye opening; an unlocking that seeds into this fuzzy white noise. This static recalls the crashing of ocean waves, both sounds and images that have been linked to the clearing of the mind. 

The static is cut short in order to make way for the piano, whose sparse articulations and open chords evoke the French impressionist styles of composers such as Claude Debussy.  

The piano plays almost out of time, plucking chords and individual pitches, giving a feeling of ambling motion.

The entrance of the voice adds a new layer that gives motion to the song. 

Reminiscent of gospel and spirituals, vocal portamenti contrast with the angular nature of the piano. 

The repetition in the left hand of the piano also harkens back to Debussy, a way of manipulating the feeling of time. Like meditation, like ocean waves, sous la mer dans la mer. 

These two styles come mired in cultural context that recall a sonic way of knowing, a practice of listening. The repetition of text in gospel songs is a reminder to focus on the word. Its power as both prayer and exhortation. 

The voice ascends into the upper register falsetto on Hallelujah. A word of praise. 

The timbre of the falsetto can give the feeling of a sound beyond a body. Here, gender and body are at play, leaving only the voice and again, the word.

DR. IMANI MOSLEY

Dr. Imani Danielle Mosley is an Assistant Professor of Musicology at the University of Florida. Her research focuses on Benjamin Britten, music, opera, and modernism in Britain post-1945. Her current research addresses sacred sonic culture, acoustics, and ritual in the English churches and cathedrals central to Britten’s sacred music. In addition to her work on Britten, she also specializes in contemporary opera, reception history, queer theory, masculinities studies, digital humanities, sound studies, and race in 21st-century popular musics.