Anthem (1983)

Anthem originates in a single piercing scream emitted by an eleven-year-old girl standing in the reverberant hall of Union Railroad Station in Los Angeles. The original scream of a few seconds is extended and shifted in time to produce a primitive "scale" of seven harmonic notes, which constitute the soundtrack of the piece. Related in form and function to the religious chant, Anthem describes a contemporary ritual evocation centered on the broad theme of materialism—the architecture of heavy industry, the mechanics of the body, the leisure culture of Southern California, the technology of surgery, and their relation to our deep primal fears, darkness, and the separation of body and spirit.