Band's torture case strikes an interesting note

Terry Sarten Photo/File

Music has dynamic. It has its highs and lows - its moments of joyous harmony when it lifts the soul, or the desperate tuneless cacophony in search of a melody that drives us nuts.

Despite the well-known quality of music to soothe, it can also alienate. At an extreme level of intensity and duration, deafeningly loud music is used as a method of torture.

A band called Skinny Puppy recently got wind that their music was being used as an instrument of torture on prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. I checked out the Skinny Puppies out on the net, and they play a very gritty kind of alternative sound, which, after a few hours at ear-smashing volume, would make you tell all and even make stuff up just to make it stop.

NB: To give this context, it is likely that Cliff Richard at extreme volume would probably have the same effect if you turned the bass right up to 11.

Not only are Skinny Puppy upset at their music being used in this way, they are also chasing the royalties due for every time it was played at the Guantanamo prison.

I can see their point about getting what is due but it does seem way beyond A-grade irony to claim on torture usage. The military, for their part, have come up with what is by far the most original reason for pirating music and not paying for it that I have ever heard - they cannot say if they did or not because it is a secret, which it has to be - torture is a crime in international law. Skinny Puppy say they have invoiced the military for $666,000 but the army are saying they have no record of the paperwork being received.

On another whole sheet of music is the saga of the "famous deaf composer" who was not really deaf and the music he "composed" was written by someone else. Mamoru Samuragochi, regarded as one of the great classical composers in Japan, has turned out to be a fraud. Credited with the famous Hiroshima Symphony No 1, and soundtracks to popular video games, he was admired for this triumph over his deafness.

Now it has been revealed the music all came from the pen of a talented part-time lecturer in music at a college in Tokyo, named Takashi Niigaki. Mr Niigaki, who has been ghost composing since the 1990s, decided to out himself when he found that a piece of his music was going to be used by a Japanese ice skater at the Winter Olympics.

He said had planned to reveal the truth a number of times in the past but then Mr Samuragochi had threatened to kill himself so he had remained silent. As well as not being the real composer, it seems the business of being deaf was all faked to enhance comparisons between Samuragochi and Beethoven, who had indeed written many of his famous works after going deaf.

As a final note (C sharp or B flat), I have just realised why my talents as a singer/songwriter have gone largely unnoticed by the masses. Despite doing gigs in Europe recently with great reviews, it is proving hard to get noticed in Oz.

I thought perhaps this was because I was nearly 60 and not young and dashing but then, looking through a few music magazines I realised what was wrong. In all the pictures the musicians look grim, grumpy or gaze at their shoes, whereas in my publicity stuff I look quite cheerful. Clearly I need to develop ennui, an air of mystery and gaze at my shoes more often.

Terry Sarten is a writer, musician and social worker at large in the big wide world. Feedback: tgs@inspire.net.nz or www.telsarten.com