12/22/10 – Church of Sounds

I went to Church with my grandparents. My grandmother and I do not speak German, and though my Grandfather does – he doesn’t have sufficient mastery to translate it as a sufficient speed to make the experience intelligible.

Instead, I was awash with sound. I closed my eyes and felt my ears punched with phrase after phrase of German beating against my ear drums. A distinct shout to the language itself made my experience of picking up actual sound that much more challenging. In the same way how it’s harder to pick out the 5 sounds in a dialect that is predominantly sing-songy (Southern Drawl) - the German language made it interesting to distinguish things other than Shout, which is associated with Wood.

I found it quite useful to have an absence of meaning. Since I didn't know the words, all I heard was sound. The wounded singing Earth sound of my grandfather’s German (who’s voice is similar to Bill Clinton’s singing moan) was quite distinct from the preacher’s warm joyful sing. These were very distinct from an unemotional droning Water shout, as well as full on punched and articulated consonants of a Wood. Lastly the bereaved and grieved weep of Metal came through quite strongly with many in the congregation.