Monitor
Monitor is a composition meant to add to the experience of watching Robert Ryman’s painting of the same name. Robert Ryman developed his painting technique to create works that simply present their materials. Similarly, this composition simply presents its material: sound. Similar to Ryman’s work, which interacts with ambient light, the listener’s environment plays an important role when listening to this composition.
While all sounds are a presentation of sound, most sounds present some idea other than sound as well. The sound of a violin is inseparable from the violin, even if produced by other means. Similarly, the sound of rain is inseparable from concepts like weather and water. The only sounds that come close to simply presenting sound, are sines.
A sine, which takes its name from the mathematical representation of the pressure wave that creates the sound, produces exactly one frequency. There are no pure sine waves in nature; all natural sounds contain some combination of multiple frequencies. The abstract nature of the sine wave exempts it from connotations beyond the concept of sound.
Robert Ryman’s Monitor can be viewed at Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.