This brilliant radio concoction has entertained me by showing me experimental music and letting me listen to a wide variety of peoples responses to such music. I am a lover and writer of music, but never in my life have a heard such strange pieces as those. i'm going to put an eight-foot fiber-glass penguin in my back yard...
Aaron gets a nice selection of ordinary folks to react to some challenging "music" created by composer and improviser John Bernt. Over the course of three pieces the subjects in general move from expressing confusion and apprehension to thinking a bit deeper about and almost accepting what they're hearing. To be fair, the first piece the subjects hear is rather obtuse, and the last of the three the most traditionally musical, although in a Steve Reich sort of way. To add balance after the subjects' reactions, Aaron injects interview clips of Bernt as he explains what is actually going on in each piece, and we the audience find that he's doing some experimenting of his own on his musicians and on us.
It would be interesting to find new guinea pigs for this Rorschach test and administer the three pieces in reverse order -- would their reactions be the same, or would they become more agitated and/or confused as the audio becomes more abstract? As always, Aaron puts a very professional touch on music/arts from the margins and attacks it creatively and unapologetically; he stands in the middle and moderates like a good journalist would.
when i heard this piece on the PRX podcast, i knew right away i was going to have to find a way to play it on our local radio show. there are a lot of great things about this piece, but most importantly, it's simply a really good idea for a story. beyond that, it's well executed, well produced/mixed, and the narrator strikes the perfect tone. it's funny and fun without sounding like it's trying really, really hard to be funny and fun.
"A Radio Rorschach Test" is a creative piece of radio. I enjoyed the counterpoint between the reporter's authoratative tone and the tongue-in-cheek subject matter. The test "subjects" represented a diverse population, which added to the overall value of the piece. Good fun!
Sara Robinson
Host/Producer
Conscious Creating: the art of transformation
This piece is very clever. It's science...Well, no it's not...it's culture...wait, it's both! In fact, it's all about what people might be thinking about when they're listening to sound and what they're expecting when it comes to music. I thought the interview subjects were excellently chosen, and the editing and voicing is impeccable, as usual. The whole package is mighty entertaining, but just one point. The descriptions of the music are fascinating, and are perhaps the whole point...besides, that is, the music itself, which is tantalizingly strange and could I hear a little more of it to relate to the experiment? I think this is the third time in a row I've said something about that in a review. Umm I'm repeating myself. Um I'm repeating myself. I'm um I'm.
The idea of using experimental music as "audio inkblots" is both original and intriguing. Although the sampling of "test subjects" is unscientifically small, each person who listened to the music samples came from a unique background and had different musical tastes. The dedication of a song at the end of the piece is ironic and amusing. This is a fun piece that would appeal to wide audiences.
Comments for A Radio Rorschach Test
Produced by Aaron Henkin
Other pieces by Aaron Henkin
Rating Summary
6 comments
Ethan Parrott
Posted on July 23, 2009 at 01:47 PM | Permalink
A great piece!
This brilliant radio concoction has entertained me by showing me experimental music and letting me listen to a wide variety of peoples responses to such music. I am a lover and writer of music, but never in my life have a heard such strange pieces as those. i'm going to put an eight-foot fiber-glass penguin in my back yard...
Justin Grotelueschen
Posted on May 04, 2007 at 09:51 AM | Permalink
Review of A Radio Rorschach Test
Aaron gets a nice selection of ordinary folks to react to some challenging "music" created by composer and improviser John Bernt. Over the course of three pieces the subjects in general move from expressing confusion and apprehension to thinking a bit deeper about and almost accepting what they're hearing. To be fair, the first piece the subjects hear is rather obtuse, and the last of the three the most traditionally musical, although in a Steve Reich sort of way. To add balance after the subjects' reactions, Aaron injects interview clips of Bernt as he explains what is actually going on in each piece, and we the audience find that he's doing some experimenting of his own on his musicians and on us.
It would be interesting to find new guinea pigs for this Rorschach test and administer the three pieces in reverse order -- would their reactions be the same, or would they become more agitated and/or confused as the audio becomes more abstract? As always, Aaron puts a very professional touch on music/arts from the margins and attacks it creatively and unapologetically; he stands in the middle and moderates like a good journalist would.
andrew walsh
Posted on July 03, 2006 at 10:18 AM | Permalink
Review of A Radio Rorschach Test
when i heard this piece on the PRX podcast, i knew right away i was going to have to find a way to play it on our local radio show. there are a lot of great things about this piece, but most importantly, it's simply a really good idea for a story. beyond that, it's well executed, well produced/mixed, and the narrator strikes the perfect tone. it's funny and fun without sounding like it's trying really, really hard to be funny and fun.
Sara Robinson
Posted on June 29, 2006 at 07:20 AM | Permalink
Review of A Radio Rorschach Test
"A Radio Rorschach Test" is a creative piece of radio. I enjoyed the counterpoint between the reporter's authoratative tone and the tongue-in-cheek subject matter. The test "subjects" represented a diverse population, which added to the overall value of the piece. Good fun!
Sara Robinson
Host/Producer
Conscious Creating: the art of transformation
Marjorie Van Halteren
Posted on May 31, 2006 at 12:35 PM | Permalink
Review of A Radio Rorschach Test
This piece is very clever. It's science...Well, no it's not...it's culture...wait, it's both! In fact, it's all about what people might be thinking about when they're listening to sound and what they're expecting when it comes to music. I thought the interview subjects were excellently chosen, and the editing and voicing is impeccable, as usual. The whole package is mighty entertaining, but just one point. The descriptions of the music are fascinating, and are perhaps the whole point...besides, that is, the music itself, which is tantalizingly strange and could I hear a little more of it to relate to the experiment? I think this is the third time in a row I've said something about that in a review. Umm I'm repeating myself. Um I'm repeating myself. I'm um I'm.
Allison St. Vincent
Posted on May 30, 2006 at 08:39 AM | Permalink
Review of A Radio Rorschach Test
The idea of using experimental music as "audio inkblots" is both original and intriguing. Although the sampling of "test subjects" is unscientifically small, each person who listened to the music samples came from a unique background and had different musical tastes. The dedication of a song at the end of the piece is ironic and amusing. This is a fun piece that would appeal to wide audiences.