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Arrows of Attention: Twelve Musical Notes
What you’re doing is important:maybe to you, maybe to others, maybe today, or one day. Music’s claim on our attention comes from its sense of urgency. The economic worth of a piece of music is a wildly inaccurate measure of its aesthetic value. Art is a gift, so what do you want to make knowing… Continue reading
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Listening Connections: Knowing Music
Listening recently to three tracks by three different artists, I noticed they share a sense of knowing in their lyrics. The voices in these songs wink at us, aware that the songs’ confessions are enacting the sentiments they describe. In “Camera,” Charli xcx explains her skepticism about being a pop star: “Do I want to… Continue reading
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Shaker
Tensioned—inside repetition’s slipstreamsubdividing, accenting, flowingmaking rhythm palpable hand holding shakera gesture of 16th notessemiquavers stretching into years timeline is panoramahear the other soundstheir parts come and gopoints of departure and arrival they hold long tonesbut percussion dances staccatoaround the clickin headphones hear discrepancies always slightly ahead or behindthe metronome is perfectme I’m uneven still distilling… Continue reading
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Accumulations (Curating The Week Over Time)
(1 year ago) (2 years ago) (3 years ago) (4 years ago) (5 years ago) (6 years ago) (7 years ago) (8 years ago) (9 years ago) (10 years ago) (More accumulations here.) Continue reading
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Musical Materials
Pieter Gerritsz. van Roestraten, Still Life with Musical Instruments (c. 1650) A question pops up when I make music: What are my materials? It often feels like I’m lacking the sonic stuff that others surely have. Questions about materials multiply: What sounds am I using? Where are these sounds from? Are these the right sounds?… Continue reading
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Resonant Thoughts: John Berger’s “And Our Faces, My Heart, Brief as Photos” (2026)
“The problem of time is like the darkness of the sky. Every event is inscribed in its own time. Events may cluster and their times overlap, but the time in common between events does not extend as law beyond the clustering” (13). “Most workers in the world carry the same physical stigma: a sign of… Continue reading
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