John Lennon's 'Revolution 9' more

John Lennon's "Revolution 9" Carlton j. Wilkinson I. The Basics JOHN LENNON'S "REVOLUTION 9" is an anomaly in several obvious respects: It is the longest of any track on any Beatles album; it has no lyrics per se; it makes the most extensive use of tape loops and extra- musical sounds of any Beatles song; it's not even a "song" in that it has no melody in the traditional sense. Hearing it as an anomaly, many Beatles listeners came quickly to disregard the work as a pointless collec- tion of random noises when it appeared at the tail end of The Beatles (henceforth the White Album).1 The Beatles here had overstepped the expectations of their fans. In the more conservative era that followed the break-up of the Beatles, the group's most ambitious efforts came to be John Lennon's "Revolution 9' 191 seen as the work of drugged-out partyers, rich punks with "too much time and too many hallucinogens on their hands and the keys to the recording studio," as my older brother put it.2 With regard to "Revolution 9," that impression remains firmly in place, particularly among members of the generation who were the Beatles's contemporaries, where it has the hallmarks of a religious conviction. Fans remain suspicious that "Revolution 9" might have been a meaning- less work of cynicism, deliberately making a mocker)' of their devotion. Or worse, Lennon might be putting on airs, taking himself too seriously and betraying his working class background through pretensions in a "high-brow" art form. These suspicions have some validity but do not detract from the significance and artistic success of "Revolution 9." On its own terms the work exhibits a very definite musical structure and a clarity of intent that allows more unbiased listeners to easily find meaning. Moreover, the work represents an intensely subjective expres- sive tendency that was to become the hallmark of Lennon's solo work in both art and music. This paper will attempt to address these issues specifically. For other aspects of the discussion surrounding "Revolution 9," I can highly recommend three sources: Walter Everett's comprehen- sive analysis of the Beatles's recording techniques and songwriting, The Beatles as Musicians, which includes a brief but insightful look at "Revo- lution 9," Mark Lewisohn's annotated Abbey Road studio logs, and Ian Hammond's series of self-published online articles, offering what is probably the only detailed assessment of "Revolution 9" currently avail- able. My analysis was conducted independently, but I remain grateful to Hammond for his pioneering work on this piece, which has helped me to confirm and sharpen my own conclusions. Where consistent with my analysis, I have tried to use or correlate with Hammond's terminology. With regard to the fundamental aspects of the structure and the importance of the composition, I believe he and I are in agreement. "Revolution 9" was born in a Beatles's jam session on May 30, 1968, during the recording of the Lennon song that became "Revolution 1" (also included on the White Album). According to Lewisohn, the recording session lasted over ten minutes, of which only a little over four minutes remained in the final mix of "Revolution 1." (Lewisohn, 153) The remaining six minutes became the basis for the sound collage later titled "Revolution 9." In "Revolution 1," Lennon airs a controversial political position, a message echoed and developed in the music of "Revolution 9." The lyrics of "Revolution 1" appear to mock revolution and revolutionaries and imply a preference to work within the system, flawed as it is. The singer belittles through agreement—"we all want to change the world"—and implies that the movement is pursuing 192 Perspectives of New Music "destruction" for its own sake. Perceived at the time as an insulting gesture toward the New Left, there's a quality of childlike taunting, teasing in both the message and the melodic structure as Lennon in the third verse dismisses the radical politicians: "carrying pictures of Chairman Mao" he chides, "ain't gonna make it with anyone anyhow." (Fagen) Significantly, he opposes changing "the Constitution," saying "you better free your mind instead." The writer holds no hope that a new plan to fix the ills of the world will represent change for the better and retreats instead to the world he can control: his own attitude, his own head. Moreover, he charmingly, but arrogantly, suggests we do the same. Voicing the reaction of the New Left, contemporary critics saw no radicalism in Lennon's stance, only cowardice and betrayal. In particular, in an exchange with the editors of London's Marxist news- paper Black Dwarf in January 1969, Lennon defended the message of "Revolution 1" against criticism published a few months earlier: I'll tell you what's wrong with the world: people—so do you want to destroy them? Ruthlessly? Until we change your/our heads— there's no chance. Tell me of one successful revolution. Who fucked up communism, Christianity, capitalism, buddhism, etc.? Sick heads, and nothing else. (Ali, 359) Even as Lennon distanced himself from the aims of the New Left's pol- itical leadership, his words and the very act of participation in a debate with Black Dwarf demonstrated a powerful sympathy. In the years that followed, Lennon allied himself directly with various radical groups in England and the U.S., but it is doubtful he ever really overcame this anxiety. Overall, it seems clear that Lennon wanted desperately to participate in bringing about change to a world that was clearly "fucked up." But he could not trust any leadership or movement to achieve the immediate political and social reform that was necessary. It is important to note that Lennon's break with the Maharishi occurred just prior to these recording sessions. In that relationship, he was let down by the perceived imperfections of a leader literally worshiped by his crowd of followers. This personal disappointment is closely related to the distrustful political sentiment of "Revolution 1" (and hence "Revolution 9") and is addressed head on in another angry song on the same album, "Sexy Sadie" ("Sexy Sadie" being a playfully sarcastic substitution for the word "Maharishi"). (Spitz, 757) In a much-discussed inconsistency in the recording of "Revolution 1," Lennon's ambivalence materializes in outright contradiction: "if you John Lennon's "Revolution 9' 193 talk about destruction/don't you know that you can count me out (in)." Only "out" is listed in the printed lyrics, but the word "in" is also clearly audible. (Lennon later repeats this contradiction in a taped promo of the single "Revolution" that aired on the Smothers Brothers Show, October 13, 1968.) While this is revealing of Lennon's deep sense of confusion, in the larger view it is basically irrelevant. From its laid-back blues feel to its signature, "Don't you know its gonna be all right," "Revolution 1" calls for a policy of disengagement—a personal, pacifist response. However he intended it, the word "in" is an inconsistent, superfluous detail. In an interview, Lennon addressed the "count me out/in" issue and, significantly, links it to his approach to "Revolution 9." I put in both ["in" and "out"] because I wasn't sure. There was a third version [the other two were the single, "Revolution," and the original version from the White Album, "Revolution 1"] that was just abstract, musique concrete, kind of loops and that, people screaming. I thought I was painting in sound a picture of a revolu- tion—but I made a mistake, you know. The mistake was that it was anti-revolution. (Ali, 364 ) The "third version" is "Revolution 9." In this 1971 interview (with Tariq Ali, one of the Black Dwarf editors who had engaged him in the publicly published debate in 1969), Lennon sounds self-conscious, as if he is trying awkwardly to fit "Revolution 9" into his growing political activism. But there is no need. The picture—painted as a collage of disparate sources—is that of a real revolution in all its violence and chaos. Lennon's opposition is easy to guess with even casual listening, while a closer reading reveals it imbedded in the detail. the crowd Much of what there is to understand about "Revolution 9" is already there in the title: A revolution implies upheaval, violence, masses moving against an established system—we expect promise and hope for renewal, destruction and death, and, most importantly, confusion and violence, as laws and predictable patterns of behavior are temporarily set aside and new ones are not yet in place. The "9" derives from a key element of the composition, the loop of a voice calling "number nine." As part of the title, it implies a cynicism about revolution in general: This Revolution is just one in a revolving door of revolutions, each 194 Perspectives of New Music replacing the other, again turning tender Utopian dreams into bruised and imperfect reality. This echoes the mocking tone of the "Revolution 1" lyrics.3 But "Revolution 9" could also be a generic title for any piece of musique concrete—a loose pun on revolving tapes and LPs. The Beatles in fact used this same pun before in the title of the album "Revolver." Labeling this track as the ninth when no true series exists would then be seen as deliberately absurd—a thumb-the-nose-at-tradition statement which has its own tradition in Western music (recall Erik Satie's Trois morceaux en forme de poire, a work of seven sections) and its own precedent in Lennon's creative work.5 The number nine also has deep personal significance for Lennon, particularly with regard to moments that transformed his life. His birthday was October 9, 1940, and significant career-altering encounters with the Beatles' longtime manager Brian Epstein and with Yoko Ono both occurred on November 9—1961 and 1966, respectively. The number appears elsewhere in his songwriting, revealing a conscious fascination: "One After 909" (1963) and "Number 9 Dream" (1975). In Understanding Medici, Marshall McLuhan asserts that our concept of number is an extension of our physical sensation of touch; he relates the human understanding of numbers to experiences with crowds and wealth. He adds, however, that a developed use of numbers also plays a decisive role in "breaking tribal unity," individualizing members of society, separating us from the crowd.4 Lennon was almost certainly aware of McLuhan's ideas, however a discussion of McLuhan's influence on Lennon's music and politics is beyond the scope of this paper. Merely using the psychological relationship between number and crowd described by McLuhan as a springboard, we are led immediately to a richer reading of "Revolution 9": The "number nine" voice is both a symbol of Lennon's individuality and the threat of the crowd to subsume that individuality. Elements symbolizing personal experience, most notably Yoko Ono's voice between time points 6:53 and 7:52, are placed in opposition to crowd noise and sounds related to mass exper- ience. This polarity is present in the potential of any revolution—healthy social reform versus violent upheaval and the suffering of individuals. stylistic transformation On the heels of the Maharishi letdown, Lennon began a love affair with conceptual artist Yoko Ono only weeks before these recording sessions. In their relationship, which from the beginning involved artistic John Lennon's "Revolution 9' 195 collaboration, and in the media frenzy it caused, Lennon began to explore more deeply the power of his individuality independent of the Beatles. From his earliest songs, Lennon drew frequently from personal experience in his songwriting, but subjectivity was typically masked by metaphors and third-party narratives in the lyrics and strict pop-song formulas. The song "Nowhere Man" is a case in point: while it sup- posedly describes Lennon's dark frustration over a fleeting bout of writer's block, the story unfolds in the third-person—the sly "isn't he a bit like you and me?," stated almost as an afterthought, makes the speaker appear sympathetic, but unrelated, to the subject. The music barely wavers from the opening melodic sequence, a working out of a mechanical clockwork formula—the message is couched in cool detach- ment. In his post-Beatles work on the other hand, encouraged by Ono, Lennon sheds artifice and places himself squarely into the artistic frame, creating an explicitly subjective, documentary style that allows him to explore aspects of society and the human condition through the lens of his own direct personal experience. In this, he blends his role as a quasi- mythical pop icon with his personal history and very personal path toward self-discovery and self-definition, while at the same time often presenting his artwork (containing bits of himself) as a social activism. Ono had at this point already achieved recognition for her own work and as a member of the Fluxus movement. Her "Cut Piece" perform- ance of 1964, in which audience members were invited to snip away patches of her clothing, is still widely viewed as a groundbreaking event for the conceptual art movement. Its most revolutionary characteristic was its placement of the artist herself at the center of her work, physically and emotionally vulnerable to the dangers and social unorthodoxies implied in the group act of removing and destroying her clothing. (Munroe) As she enters Lennon's life, we immediately see this tendency emerging in his work, a decisive stylistic transformation. In works from 1968 and 1969 like "Julia," "The Ballad of John and Yoko," "Cold Turkey" and Two Virgins (with John and Yoko nude on the cover), the once-detached songwriter can be seen taking large, deliberate steps toward a confessional style that overtly blends the personal and the political, putting all of himself in the frame; a social icon and a real man with real ideas, he serves as both artist and artistic subject. "Revolution 9" is one of these steps: a portrait of the artist at war with himself, at war with his world, a world also at war with itself and at war with war. Projecting his own experience onto the screen of the political debate swirling around him, Lennon views the crowd—vividly conveyed by sounds related to mass experience—with both longing and 196 Perspectives of New Music fear. The crowd is the catalyst, both nurturing womb and crushing burial, the alpha and the omega of human identity; recognition of personal intimacy and isolation within our own individual skins is an act of heroism, opening us to terrifying vulnerability. At the same time, probably more out of habit than intention, the songwriter chooses a form and style that allow him to preserve his attitude of detachment from the message. Soon, in his post-Beatles recordings, he will abandon such pretense, culminating in an intensely subjective style in his political activism of the 1970s, a period that included "Bagism" and other performance art collaborations with Yoko Ono. Though it loses much of its daring and drama, this continues to be an important stylistic element to varying degrees throughout his remaining career, inclusive of the songs on his 1980 Double Fantasy. II. The Structure of "Revolution 9" "Revolution 9" is organized around significant articulations in the over- all texture, usually occurring at approximately 60-second intervals. Using the most pronounced of the textural articulations as a guide, we can divide the composition neatly into three large, well-rounded sec- tions: 0:00 to 5:00, 5:00 to 6:56 and 6:56 to the end, delineated by sharp differences in texture and differentiated by the choice and han- dling of raw material. Section I (five minutes) Section II (two minutes) Section III (one and a half minutes) The loudest and most energetic moments occur early in Section II. However, the dramatic climax of the composition comes almost at the end, midway through Section III. These large sections are divided into subsections forming a regular phrase structure, themselves anchored by the regular articulations in texture. This phrase structure is altered at the beginning of Section II, but reasserts itself by the end of that section. Section III is relatively brief and consists entirely of new material. However its phrase structure closely resembles the Section I model. After some general observations regarding the composition as a whole, I will briefly discuss each subsection with the aid of timelines (see Timelines, below). McCartney's short, untitled song fragment "can you take me back where I came from . . ." is a prelude, entirely separate from "Revolution John Lennon's "Revolution 9' 197 9" and largely irrelevant to any structural analysis of the piece. Support- ed by an ostinato of acoustic guitar and hand percussion—instruments absent in the subsequent composition—this track is further distinct from "Revolution 9" in that it has no tape loops or recording effects. As a transition, however, it serves to lead the listener from the dark and tune- ful "Cry Baby Cry" into the black nightmare of Lennon's "Revolution 9." It is a short incantation with a clear aspect of ritual and introspec- tion, preparing us for the journey, urging the faithful forward and warning off the faint of heart. Before we know it, we are in that world. The McCartney prelude is crudely cut off as it is fading out, interrupted by a second introduction: a nine-second snippet of conversation—barely audible—obviously between George Martin and another man in the recording studio.6 This introduction is again cut off and a new segment begins, marked by soft piano music and the loop of a voice speaking "number nine" over and over, panned back and forth between the stereo speakers. Since each LP side of the White Album is entirely without breaks between songs, the decision on where to mark the zero point for "Revolution 9" is complex. Does it begin with the McCartney song fragment? Or the conversation that follows? Or the entrance of the "number nine" voice that follows that? I examined each possibility on its own merits and finally chose the beginning of the conversation—the splice that ends the McCartney prelude—as the zero point.7 Starting the clock at this point, the 60-second articulations noted earlier seem to occur in the vicinity of the round minute, 1:00, 2:00, 3:00, etc., with the division between the first two large sections occur- ring squarely at 5:00. The sound of George Martin's voice, featured in the opening conversation, returns, albeit in an entirely different context, as an ostinato loop in Section III. Further, some of the mood and texture of the nine-second conversation are preserved throughout the bulk of the composition by a separate pair of speaking voices—often unintelligible—that helps to unify the texture and delineate the overall form. The "number nine" loop that immediately follows is repeated periodically throughout the first five minutes of the composition. This "Can You Take Mc Back" — conversation — "Number 9" loop 0:00 0:09 example 1 198 Perspectives of New Music voice could be asking for the ninth of anything, but it seems most familiar as a calling of some person waiting in line. Given the turmoil over the Vietnam War at the time (and the Beatles's newly declared opposition to the war), it is compelling to view this as an allusion to a draft number. Further, given the personal nature of the number nine in the composer's own mind, we are tempted to view the number as representative of Lennon himself: the speaker is calling for Lennon; his number is up. But such a specific interpretation denies a potentially broader significance. It suffices to know that there is a line, numbered and waiting; the voice pans back and forth between the speakers as if the caller is turning his head from side to side, searching among the crowd. By implication, we are in that line—numbered elements of a homo- geneous group. The numbering effectively strips us of our individual identities. Interpretively and structurally, this voice is our guide for what is to come. It punctuates the music in Section I at key points, heralding sub- sections of contrasting texture. This Guide Voice fades out for the first time 31 seconds after its entrance, recurring again in shorter statements in the neighborhood of the two-minute mark, the three-minute mark (followed by a muffled reappearance at 3:37), the four-minute mark, again at 4:27, marking the transition into Section II, and one last time at 6:31. A list of what I hear as the most significant structural time points is shown in Example 2. The "Guide Voice" column shows the start times for this element's occurrences, illustrating how it is most often used to highlight important moments in the structure during the first half of the piece. At each location in the "Time Point" column we hear a sharp change in texture—that is, significant foreground material is cut off, replaced by other material. Such juxtapositions occur roughly three or four times in each minute of the piece. In the "Sections" column, I mark chrono- logically what I hear as the most dramatic of these changes in texture, and I find that they seem to denote the beginning or the end of a musical process, falling typically at 30- or 60-second intervals. Some of these articulations are more accurately described as splices: all previous sound is cut off without fading and replaced instantaneously with wholly different material. The effect is used judiciously. The most obvious occurrences are indicated in Example 3, falling at the beginning and end of the introductory conversation, at the beginning and the end of Section II (5:00 and 6:52), once within the four-second transition into the closing section and once more at its end (6:53 and 6:56) and again at 7:56, dividing the closing section into two contrasting parts. John Lennon's "Revolution 9' 199 Time Point Guide Voice Section Description Structure 0:00 Intro I-Intro Conversation Intro 0:09 I-A Bm Piano A 0:11 Guide Voice 0:30 Backward Piano 0:54 Choir/Orchestra 1:00 Oboe, Crowd, Paired Voices 1:10 Backward Piano, Bm Pno/Voices 1:30 6/8 Strings, Paired Voices Clar. & Pizz. Bass, Rising Chord 1:57 1:57 IE Baby, Paired Voices, Guide Voice, Ebm Choir B 2:11 2:26 Backward SA Choir, Massed Loops, Crowd 2:43 Backward SA Choir, Lennon Singing 3:00 3:00 I-C Traffic Backward SA Choir, Guide Voice, Paired Voices, Crowd C 330 Children Phving Rewinding Tape 3:37 3:45 Crowd, Plane Buzz, Bugle Buzz Bm Pno/Voices, Struggling Voice 3:57 4:00 ID Backward Piano, Bm Pno/Voices A1 4:14 Crowd Noise, Lennon: "Alright" 4:27 4:27 Massed Loop Crescendo (trans) 5:00 II-A Riot Fire Hoses, Crowd and Bass C 5:39 II-B Flames Flames, Backward SA Choir, Paired Voices 553 II-C Guns C Major Orch Struggling Voice Sci-Fi Guns, Wild West Guns 6:17 Backward SA Choir, Bm Pno/Voices A" 6:25 Massed Loops (overlaid) C" 6:31 6:39 II-D Children Bm Piano/Voices, Children Playing A1" 6:52 Military Band (trans) 6:53 "Take this, Brother . . ." 6:56 III-A Piano, Radio, Yoko's Voice D 7:56 III-B Crowd Cheering ("Block that Kick") C" example 2 200 Perspectives of New Music 0:00-09 5:00 6:52-56 7:56 Section I Section II | Section III example 3 This splicing carries an implicit violence, both in the abrupt forced change without transition and in an implicit instability, a lack of control or ability to predict what will happen next. Lennon appears completely aware of these dramatic implications. The initial use at 0:09 underscores the flip hostility and instability of the preceding conversation, setting the tone for what follows. The splice at 5:00 throws us successfully into a new level of sustained tension. The end of the five-second transition into Section III ("take this, brother . . .") is accompanied by the real-world sound of a mechanical switch being thrown—a sly reinforcement of the launching of a new idea. cyclical form In his analysis, Hammond finds a cyclical form akin to ritornello, with the one-minute segments ("strips" in Hammond's terminology) noted earlier serving as Lennon's basic compositional unit. In my analysis I have shown these segments as clear periods, typically dividing into two contrasting phrase groups at or near the 30-second mark. The antecedent phrase is always marked by an appearance of material that amounts to the main theme of "Revolution 9," what Hammond terms the "home" statement. Occurrences of "home" feature a small, select group of elements, given here with the timing of each element's first clear statement: Bm Piano, 0:09; Guide Voice, 0:11; Paired Voices, 1:00; Backward Piano, 1:06; Clar & Pizz Bass, 1:18; and Backward SA Choir, 2:26.8 These elements possess significant relationships in the pitch domain, to be discussed in more detail later (see Pitch, below). Appearances by other elements may overlap these, but in general "home" elements are clearly stated and readily identifiable as anchors for the phrase structure, "home" statements usually occur in the antecedent phrase group. This material is avoided or downplayed in the consequent phrase group, replaced by more volatile-sounding sources. Tension- filled elements and a theme of crowd sounds present in most of "Revolution 9" are typically emphasized in these consequent sections. John Lennon's "Revolution 9' 201 Hammond refers to appearances of this opposing thematic material as "episodes", and indeed these phrases exhibit specific tendencies reflective of the term. These terms of "home" and "episode" are particularly useful as thematic identifiers, allowing us to track significant content within the regular phrase structure. Of the "home" elements, the Guide Voice, the Bm Piano and the Paired Voices are of primary importance; the other three are secondary, gaining their significance through association with these. The Paired Voices element in the "home" material consists of a single continuous (nonlooping) recording of Lennon and George Harrison speaking nonsense, appearing and disappearing in the mix but lasting from 1:00 to 6:52. Usually this element appears with the Bm Piano, forming a strong sense of return as a compound element and referred to in Example 2 as the Bm Pno/Voices. This special treatment is reserved for these two elements; while others may be grouped together on a local level, the larger tendency is for them to emerge and recede as independent agents. The relatively strict phrase structure of "Revolution 9" is delineated in part by the regularity of the "home" statements. In the first three minutes of the piece, each "home" statement occurs roughly ten seconds after the round-minute articulation; in the first two minutes, the "home" area lasts for approximately twenty seconds, while the third (beginning at 2:10) lasts about fifteen seconds. All subsequent "home" statements, until 6:17, are only about ten seconds each, and less satis- fying as points of rest. A crossfade at 6:17 brings back the Bm Pno/Voices coupled with the Backward SA Choir. Another "episode" at 6:22 overlays the continuing "home" elements, which re-emerge at 6:39 and remain present and stable until the end of Section II at 6:52. "home" statements are completely absent from Section III. I've described the organization of "home" and "episode" statements in a simple chart (Example 4), using Xs to mark the "home" statements and Os to mark the "episodes." Those sections left unmarked are best identified as neither "home" nor "episode," but as introductory, trans- itional or Coda material. The material beginning at 4:27 (marked in Example 4 as an O in parentheses) functions as a continuation of the previous "episode" and as a transition into the next section. The segments from 5:00 to 5:39 and at 6:17 to 6:22 offer only hints of "home" statements and less clear division between "home" and "episode" (again indicated by parentheses above). The minute-long subsections in Section III function as contrasting statements in the way of the antecedent and consequent phrase structure apparent in the opening minutes, but III-A does not 202 Perspectives of New Music Section I A-B-C-D- 0:00 0:09 0:25 1:10 1:30 2:10 2:22 3:00 3:11 4:00 4:11 4:27 — X OXO XOX OXO(O) Section II A-B-C-D- 5:00 5:39 5:49 6:17 6:22 6:39 6:52 6:53 (X/O) X O (X O) X — — Section III A-B- 6:56 7:56 8:21 — (O) End example 4 contain the necessary sound sources to establish a sense of "home;" on the other hand, the Cheering Crowd solo of III-B is strongly reminiscent of previous "episodes." At the end of each period, we typically find a short area that functions as a cadence, sometimes incorporating or followed by a transition into the next section. As will be seen below, cadences are usually formed by a sudden increase in the energy level, often involving the introduction of several sounds at once or a burst of new interplay between existing sounds typically involving a pronounced use of faders. associations and foreshadowing Throughout Sections I and II, there is a marked tendency to fore- shadow the significant statement of a sound source—or combination— using a shorter statement by the same source. Here are a few examples drawn from the first three minutes: 1:00—the Paired Voices enter in the foreground and drop to almost complete inaudibility into the background at 1:03, returning as a principal foreground element from 1:10 to 1:30. 1:49—the opening of the Eb Minor Choir loop is heard in a one- second appearance with a full-fledged foreground statement at 2:00. John Lennon's "Revolution 9' 203 1:57—the Guide Voice appears briefly in the foreground alternat- ing with the Crowd Cheer; both drop out and are brought back in the same relationship for an important foreground statement at 2:11 to 2:20. This consistent foreshadowing tendency explains the appearance of the Bm Pno/Voices from 3:47 to 3:54. On the surface, this seems contra- dictor)' to the rhythm of the structure, but it anticipates an important "home" statement commencing with the Guide Voice at 3:58 (the Bm Pno/Voices return at 4:03). Foreshadowing goes hand-in-hand with a tendency to associate sound sources musically and dramatically, simply by stating similar forms in proximity to one another, by stating them as balanced points within a phrase structure, or by repeating patterns of elements from phrase to phrase. On the level of local detail: The lone, unsustained electric guitar note P occurring at 4:20 is followed at 4:24 by the same note in the same register played on the cello. The Oboe's laughing character (1:37- 52) is echoed in a woman's nearly hysterical laughter (1:52-54); this laughter is replaced by the gurgling laughter of a baby (1:57-2:11). Similarity is sometimes achieved by tape manipulation as in the Baby's first sounds at 1:57, mechanically pitched at Eb, Db, Eb—anticipating the first notes in upper voice of the E[> Minor Choir (Eb, Db, Eb) that follows at 2:00. It is also achieved through timbre—for instance, the near-white noise of the Massed Loops from 4:27 to 5:00 strongly resembles that of the Fire Hoses at 5:00. The Fire Hoses in turn fade into the similar timbre of the Cheering Crowd ("Hold that line" beginning at 5:12). At the middleground level, we notice patterns and associations also between phrase groups and sections. One association binding elements on this larger scale is the creation of dramatic "scenes" using both real- world sounds and sounds manipulated into representations of real-world sounds. These scenes unify large segments of the composition under specific dramatic themes: A car honk, orchestral loops and fader manipulation imitate Traffic noise in I-C; the thumping bass seems to excite the rushing noise of the Fire Hoses and the Cheering Crowd that together dominate IT A; the sound of a Struggling Voice amid Flames in ITB gives way to the sounds of gunfire in ITC; the happy sound of Children Playing accompanies the Bm Pno/Paired Voices statement in ITD. In Example 2 above, I have given descriptive names to these sections in the "Section" column. The Children Playing and Crowd elements appear as secondary elements elsewhere, but each emerges once as the central focus of a particular passage. Altogether the named scenes account for roughly a third of the composition and represent the 204 Perspectives of New Music principal technique of development. The presentation of these dramatic snapshots between 3:00 and 7:00 helps hold the collage together and create forward momentum. More importantly, most of these scenes reinforce the theme of mass experience and the threat to individuality central to the composer's intention. pitches Each loop possesses its own internal rhythmic and pitch structure; the choice of loops and the interplay between them defines the overall harmonic character of the large sections as basically triadic, with one harmony serving as the basis for each large section and juxtaposed against other harmonies. Section I is dominated by the B minor tonality supplied by the Bm Piano and opposed or complemented by harmonies built on Eb, Bb, C major, Cft and Bb minor. Section II begins with a sustained D major feel using a bass guitar pedal point on a low D and a trumpet-like pedal on a1. Voices chanting from the Crowd in this section seem to imply an Fj), filling in the D major harmony. This moves briefly to a Bb dominant seventh (from the Backward SA Choir loop) before returning to B minor. Section III opens with a Bright Piano playing an octave A and a bass guitar alternating a low A with lower E; this harmony is interrupted with more ambiguous material and later reestablished via an A major melody in the second of two song excerpts recorded from radio broadcasts, followed by the same Bright Piano now playing E in octaves alternating with Cft. (The Crowd chanting that ends the composition has no clear tonal implication of its own; the main voices that seem to be shouting an Fft contribute to the D major feel of Section II, but are insufficient to establish a return to D in Section III.) The harmonic contour of the entire composition could thus be described: Section I—B minor tonality with opposing chromatic inflections, most notably from Eb major and C major triads. Section II—a D major triad followed first by Bb dominant seventh and then a return to B minor. Section III—an A major triad followed by the ambiguously pitched, unaccompanied Cheering Crowd. The persistence of the Bm Piano and its internally complete i-ii°s -i-V-i progression seem to imply that the whole piece may heard "in" B minor; John Lennon's "Revolution 9' 205 but the case is never proved conclusively, leaving a harmonic ambiguity in line with the work's deliberately unsettled aesthetic. Further, the juxtapositions of distant harmonies are an outgrowth of the collage technique that guides "Revolution 9"; thus describing these harmonies as part of a single scale or key would contradict the work's very nature. More simply and perhaps more accurately, we could say that B minor represents the guiding thread to which all the other harmonies are attached. Regarding the other "home" elements, the Paired Voices are entirely spoken and never imply any specific pitch. The Guide Voice is also speaking, but, as a short unaltered loop, it always emphasizes a clear glissando figure from b to b1 (a little flat). Each of the remaining elements emphasizes a different harmony: Eb in the Clarinet & Pizzicato Bass, Cft minor in the Backward Piano, and a Bb dominant seventh in the Backward SA Choir. These harmonies all stand in opposition to one another, helping to create feelings of tension within areas of greater stability and to provide a sense of motion within otherwise static harmonic areas. A melodic formula further links these "home" elements, framed at the outset in the Bm Piano as a harmonized melodic descent, the top line in the final cadence filling in a minor third (scale degrees 3-2-1 in B minor). The Clar & Pizz Bass is a loop consisting of a similar but inexact copy of the melodic descent (scale degrees 5-4-3 in Eb major). The top pitches of the Backward Piano loop ascend and descend through a minor third (scale degrees 1-2-3-2-1 in Cft minor). The Backward SA Choir adds a lower neighbor to the final note (assuming the key is Eb, the soprano figure is a descent through scale degrees 2-1- 7-6, where scale degree 6 is a lower neighbor moving immediately back up to scale degree 7). All of these minor thirds are voiced in the octave around b1, a pitch that has considerable significance as a focal point for the first half of the composition. The use of similar melodic register throughout "Revolution 9" is exploited by the juxtaposition of harmonies that share a common tone but are otherwise only distantly related. This helps maintain the texture Clar & Pizz. Bass Backwards Pno Backwards Choir r r example 5 206 Perspectives of New Music of discontinuity necessary to the work, while also creating a feeling of similarity between the transformations themselves and within the melodic structure. A fairly consistent voice leading is exhibited, estab- lishing the pitch b1 as a melodic foundation that is treated to various oppositions and divergences in Section I, dropping to a1 for the opening of Section II. That pitch is reiterated in the opening of III. Harmonies with the most significant tonal implications in Section I are broken down by subsection in Example 6. Harmonies are stated in order of appearance, although some may appear juxtaposed against others. The Bm Piano is a simple harmonized melody that is repeated in three specific forms with only superficial differences between them, shown in Example 7. The music of the last three chords of version 1 is highlighted more prominently throughout the piece as this element recurs. Noting this, we are able to use the B minor and Fj) major triads to represent the prevailing harmony in the subsections of Section I and the final two sub- sections of Section II; Section ITA and B may be represented by a D major triad and Section III represented by an A major triad. As the Tonnetz series in Example 8 shows, the principal pitched elements in each section typically share one common tone with the prevailing harmony in that section. There are two clear exceptions shown in the Example 8 Tonnetz series: In Section I-D, the isolated pitches ab1 and f in combination with Lennon's singing (roughly eb1 to ab) are represented here by a single sonority (F-Ab-Eb) that lies completely outside both the Fj) and B minor Section TA Section I-B Section TC Section TD B Minor Eb Major V7ofEb Cft Minor Eb major E Major B Minor B Minor Cft Minor B Minor cm7 Bb Major cm7 Bb Minor V7 of Eb Gb Major example 6 John Lennon's "Revolution 9' 207 Bm Piano, Veision One (0:09) V Bm Piano; Version Two (1:12) example 7 208 Perspectives of New Music example 8A John Lennon's "Revolution 9' Section lll-A b\> f c g G# Et B[> F example 8c 210 Perspectives of New Music triads (although it does have a Gfl/Ab in common with the Backward Piano). Likewise, in Section II-A and B, the C major seventh and Fj) major harmonies lie outside the principal triad of D major. In the second case, however, if we treated the D major as an inflection on a prolonged B minor harmony (articulated by the return of the Bm Piano in Section II-C) the anomaly disappears—the new Tonnetz would show common tones between all the harmonies (Example 9). However, in both cases, the heightened tension of the context creates an appropriate platform for the appearance of more pronounced oppositions. To reiterate, these common tones are most often found in the same register, highlighting them as links in a harmonic chain. Sometimes the common tone is not stated by adjacency or superimposition, but is nonetheless implied in longer range relationships. The majority of the harmonies in Example 6 do not imply key centers closely related (in the sense of adjacency within the circle of fifths) to the most significant recurring pitched element in the composition, the Bm Piano. Rather it appears that common-tone relationships between this element and more distant harmonies is the desired effect. The closely related keys of D major, implied in Section II, and A major, in Section III, stand out more strongly as a result of this harmonic tendency. Out of this cloud of harmonies, the pitches b1 and bb1 emerge as a melodic focus of Section I, heavily favored as common tones between elements. In Section TA, loops of oboe and horn leaping in fifths and fourths respectively briefly imply an ambiguous white-key harmony (B, e, a, c1, d1, g1, a1, d2) that is not shown here; these loops intersect the voicing of the B minor triad with common pitches of B and d1. As mentioned earlier, B is also emphasized by an octave glissando (b to b1) in the Guide Voice. This element and a few others that merely reiterate pitches already given, are also not directly represented in Examples 8 Section ll-A & B F C G_ D A B F# C# \ G# \ El, example 9 John Lennon's "Revolution 9' and 9. The pitch a1, introduced in Section I, becomes a melodic focus in Sections II and III. The b1 is supported by a low B in the Bm Piano as part of a solid B minor harmony and is reiterated by the Guide Voice and later by the C Maj Orch loop, with its heavy statement of the C major leading tone.9 The B minor/C major juxtaposition is highly significant, as it creates the expectation of the harmonic motion described above: opposition while emphasizing common tones. The first foreground appearance of the C Maj Orch is accompanied by a fade-in of the Bm Piano at 2:16-26, highlighting both the common tone and the chromatic opposition (Example 10). From the outset, Lennon uses this technique to create areas imbued with harmonic tension, giving just us enough music within each loop to firmly establish a separate tonal identity. The following passage, shown in Example 11 (1:17-1:30), is a relatively transparent illustration of this tendency, pairing the Bm Piano and the Clarinet (in Et»). Note that in this example the pitch-classes G and A|}/Bt> are common tones, stated in a common register, while the low F in pianissimo pizzicato strings accompanying the clarinet fights against the piano's Fj), a chromatic dissonance that helps to maintain tension and to establish the two elements as a separate tonal identities, (a similar bass note clash occurs in the passage cited in example 10.) The bt*1, stated here as a grace note, is reiterated in the fanfare (first heard clearly at 0:54), the Rising Chord (0:37), the Clar 2 (3:39), and the Trumpet (2:28) elements.10 Typically, the bt*1 is harmonized as the root of a Bt» chord or the fifth of Ek As noted in Example 11, it also is repeatedly linked to its enharmonic equivalent in the Bm Piano, the aft1 leading tone in the V chord. example 10 John Lennon's "Revolution 9' 235 References Ali, Tariq. 2005. The Street Lighting Tears. London: Verso. Brog, Michael. 1995. 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