Longplayer is definitely an intriguing and ambitious piece. After listening, I didn’t necessarily enjoy it solely as music. However, it’s clear that it’s much more than a musical composition and so I wanted to find more contextual information.
Finer wanted to make sense of a millennium because 1000 years isn’t fully comprehensible as we can’t witness it from beginning to end – yet this isn’t a long time cosmically. Longplayer is essentially a physical representation of time, allowing us to contemplate it better.
Another potential link to our understanding of time is the singing bowl arrangement. Not only does a circle represent something continuous (just like time), the concentric circle set-up for this installation resembles the solar system. Space is significant to our understanding of time as day and night is measured by the orbit of the sun and coincides with our knowledge of time passing.
Sustainability is vital to the survival of Longplayer, both in withstanding time and adapting to technological and societal changes. Singing bowls can be played by humans and computers so are well designed for this piece and their sound translates well in video and audio, allowing it to be heard online and via global listening posts. As time passes, a desire to maintain Longplayer is important and the medium used means it’s easier to do this, hopefully guaranteeing it successfully playing for 1000 years without repetition or stopping.
I now have a better understanding of Longplayer and how it works as a musical composition but also as an exploration and representation of time as a concept.
Lorna Cole: Creative Arts 