The Sound of XTC: A Sound Poem Composition

(Image: First page of piano score: "A metamusical reflection upon MTV culture, which, like the poem,
makes a fastforward journey through the strangely warped worlds of curved time-space."

| go to the musical score of the sound of XTC for piano solo |

| listen to a computer model the sound of XTC [REQUIRES QuickTime] |

The Sound of XTC

Two big speakers,

"ridin/"

d r i v e s, d r i v e s, d r i v e s,

drives, strives, dives, rides,

hard rhythms,
dead rhythms,

every beat, too soon,
too late,

b e a t, d a t e, f a t e,
beat, date, fate
(too soon/
fate, date, fate
(too late/
mate, rape, scape,
scape, e-scape?
no, no, no, no,    no, no,

c h a r g e, b a r g e,
no no, no, no
pound the bass,
"in my car/
pound the bass,

l a r g e,    r o u n d, (l a r g    e /    r o u n d )

hard rhythms,
oo, oo, oo, oo,
dead/

hard, hard, hard, h a r d,
oo, oo, oo, oo
tune in?
hard, h a r d,
in?

pound the bass,
"can't get/
no, no, no, no
pound the bass,
no, no,   no, no,

s a t i s f a c/
no. no.

satis?

no. /no./

The rhythm of this somewhat nonsensical sound poem, displayed here graphically,
literally generates the music, note for note, of the piano version shown above.

For those interested in such things, the music moves in a cascade of geometrically descending
strange loops which are much like the beautiful spirals of the fronds of a fern unfolding
in both space and time. These spirals move repeatedly from fast to slow,

-- - - - ---- - - - - -- - - - -

and overlap in time.

That is why the music, and to a certain extent the poem itself, sounds as if it were
many-voiced, or polyphonic, even though at any one moment there is always
only but one voice present.

| go to the musical score of the sound of XTC for piano solo |

| go to Picture/Poems: Central Display | PicturePage: Week II |