Mason O’Brien

MUS 372

Phonurgie

Phonurgie by French composer Francis Dhomont starts with a “Star Wars”-esque

“WOOMP” from a few strings which immediately becomes a consistent quiet electronic noise

which is augmented by different happenstances throughout the piece. There is a motive in the

piece starting at 0:15 which sounds like a ball was dropped and was left a to bounce till it stops.

There is almost no followable progression within this piece to my ears, however, it somehow

makes sense. It feels as if this is what my brain is going through whilst daydreaming or

procrastinating. At 3:19 there is a sound which reminds me of a car squealing to a halt and then

just ambient noise which slowly crescendoes to a whirring noise until it is interrupted by monkey

chatter at 5:00 and robotic noises at 5:05. This robotic noises continue as the ambient noise gets

quieter. At the 9:02 minute mark, I honestly started getting very very anxious about my

surrounding. It is a sound setting straight out of a thriller movie. At 10:00 the pulsing ball drop

noise returns.

I’m not sure of the point of this piece, however, I do find it very spiritual. There is a lot of cosmic

prowess in the music which sets a setting as if you were ethereal. The sounds are totally

unnatural, but still understandable as to what they entail. This unnatural machine sound is

different to Westerkamp’s composition because of Westerkamp’s amount of field recording done

for her work. Forest floor is much more natural sounding in its environment and keeps you on

Earth. Phonurgie is a transcendent work.