Gong

The first thought that popped into my head when asked to play a gong for 9 minutes (after just listening to a gong being played for 9 minutes) was, "why not?" So the gong-ing commenced. Keeping on task was the easy part; no symptoms of A.D.D. yet. The hard part was the type of physical and mental concentration needed to perform the piece accurately. Well, to the degree of accuracy asked for by the seemingly simple instructions. Quite a task. I'm sure a seasoned professional gong artist would beg to differ.

Another interesting tid-bit I noticed was how differently each person played the piece. Each person, whether attempting to or not, created a different interpretation of how they wanted to perform the piece. Believe it or not- I think it would have been interesting to hear how everyone played the gong, to see what kinds of sounds were produced each time. Personally I couldn't get enough of the 'singing' quality of the gong when hit a certain way bringing out individual frequencies more noticeably.

As for the aesthetic that I felt for the idea, having just this one note, or succession of similar notes (the roll) depending on how you look at it, I was intrigued to hear that Tenney had an influence from Zen Buddhism- To me it represented more than just a person playing a gong for 9 minutes. It was more of a meditative piece (to some degree) demanding concentration on one thing for a specified time- or at least time enough to reach that state. In this present time period of "now", maintaining audience attention even for just 9 minutes or less is more and more difficult- in certain situations, possibly for this piece- so for listeners that have doubts... I would have them give it a try- listening and even performing. Both require concentration.