Beauty Lies in the Eye: Harmony Within Noise in Late 80’s Sonic Youth and Precious and Intelligent Metal

Abstract

This dissertation is a study of the creative musical approaches of Sonic Youth, a band from New York active from 1981-2011, whose core ensemble was Kim Gordon (bass, vocals), Thurston Moore (guitar, vocals), Lee Ranaldo (guitar, vocals), and Steve Shelley (drums), and whose music drew influences from a wide range of musical styles including No Wave, free jazz, non-idiomatic improvisation, punk, classic rock, Minimalism, and Fluxus. It focuses primarily on the 1987 album Sister, while also delving into Sonic Youth’s other work, leading up to and surrounding that period of their output. It studies their unique alternate guitar tunings, approaches to form on both the song and album level, the influence of cyberpunk literature, and uses of Impressionist harmony.

The original composition Precious and Intelligent Metal is a piece for percussion quartet and pre-recorded electronics in five moments, a psychedelic tone poem which draws from Richard Brautigan’s novella Trout Fishing in America for structural cues and general inspiration. The piece was composed for Mobius Percussion and is scored for glockenspiel, toy piano, vibraphone, hammered dulcimer, melodicas, tuned metal pipes, other pitched metals, large wooden board, and concert bass drum. The electronic part is comprised of microtonal software synthesizers and low drones created using recordings of guitar amplifier hiss. While this composition is not directly related to the essay, the influence of Sonic Youth can be found in the piece’s rhythmic and harmonic language, imitation of harmonic feedback, and utilization of audio production artifacts.