Entry 4: Charles Dodge – A Man Sitting in the Cafeteria

Well this little piece certainly stands out from the other listenings I’ve done so far, and I must say it’s a nice change of pace. Up until now I had never come across a single line electronic work, and I can’t recall ever hearing an electronic work this short in length either. There is very little textural variance throughout and the rhythmic material is fairly simple, but with the briefness of the piece and the predominace of pitch I think it’s all very functional in giving off an intended effect. Also, with the element of pitch being this prominent, the piece seems somewhat like an acoustic idea in an eletronic setting. If had to guess I would say this is one of Dodge’s first ventures into electronic music due to the acoustic nature of his ideas, and the seemingly experimental or exploring nature to the piece. I do not mean this in a bad way, in fact I find this piece quite intriguing, but I somewhat feel that Dodge is tinkering with the speech synthesis in the form of an exercise to discover new possibilities more than as a means of expression. In other words, I think this piece should be taken lightly, and when done so I find it very enjoyable and a bit comical as well. “Which one’s steak?”, that’s never a good sign, and I always chuckle when I get to that point in the piece. In regards to the flow of the speech, I found fitting that Dodge put much more emphasis on the “man” rather than that he was “sitting” or “in the cafeteria”, and due to the single line of the piece I think it’s safe to say the man is alone. This is a cool little piece, and I’m interested to hear the other pieces in this seris.