Soundtracking
Mixing Medias
Published: 8/3/2022
By: Andrew Neyer
On November 1, 2007, Sufjan Stevens premiered a mixed-media work of art at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The show consisted of an original film directed by Stevens, accompanied by an orchestra performing a live soundtrack. Sufjan is known for combining unexpected sounds and mediums, so having three hula-hoopers adorning the performance was almost a given.
“The film, The BQE is accompanied by an idiosyncratic musical soundtrack (composed by Stevens for band and chamber orchestra), evoking a romanticized musical choreography of perpetual motion vs. gridlock. Borrowing variously from Gershwin, Terry Riley, Charles Ives, and Autechre (to name a few), the music showcases skittish woodwinds wrestling out impressionist articulation (in 7/8) and imperial brass anthems evoking various incarnations of the music of the automobile.”
Like the actual BQE (I-278), Sufjan’s composition bends and swirls throughout the ride. Sometimes chaotic, often speeding up then suddenly slowing down. The BQE’s got it all: big trucks, new cars, delivery vans, and weirdly-pimped-out-junkers. In Stevens' composition, The BQE manifests as crashes, swells, twinkles, collisions, discord, and melody.
First released as a CD/DVD in 2009, The BQE was also published as a limited gatefold 180-gram vinyl, 32-page booklet with liner notes and photographs, and 40-page Hooper Heroes comic book (also written by Stevens).
The BQE has opposing lanes of traffic. One a film, and the other a north-bound score. When viewed from above, they come together to make a terrific spectacle. At times, equal in their contrasting movements and then jammed in one direction while the other is free to cruise wherever it pleases. These wind-like ebbs and flows are what scores can accomplish.
Initially commissioned by the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Stevens let go of his safety in songwriting. Instead, opting to score a film he shot and directed over nine months.
“I intended to create a non-personal, non-narrative piece. I tried to reduce my own personal investment as much as possible, and I refused to incorporate one of my strengths, which is the song. I was relinquishing my greatest weapon.”
– Sufjan Stevens
Context
The BQE, Sufjan Stevens
Sufjan Stevens spent nine months driving and filming The Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.
"My job as an artist is to find beauty where there is ugliness."
Remix
Justin Peck’s ballet, In the Countenance of Kings, featuring music by Sufjan Stevens.
4 Scores &
7 Years Ago
2015’s Best Film Scores
Mixing mediums is the foundation of making art. By layering two art forms, film and music, we can create new contexts. This overlap spawns our most human response; emotion. We often overlook the power of a score because it isn’t seen as the foreground. If we divorce a score from its film, our sense of scale and perspectives are changed. It is assumed that the sounds we hear are referencing an action, so we must decide what we want to see and the speed, zoom, and color of our imagination.
Here are four scores from seven years ago to listen to out of context:
Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter, The Octopus Project
The Hateful Eight, Ennio Morricone
Steve Jobs, Daniel Pemberton
Star Wars: The Force Awakens, John Williams
Playlist
For an entirely new experience, try listening to all four shuffled. Might be weird?
Thoughts
– What is the soundtrack to your life?
– What is background?
– What is foreground?
