• Russell Hartenberger Steve Reich. This search brought you to my post on Hartenberger’s stellar book, Performance Practice in the Music Of Steve Reich. In my post I wrote:
“As I read Performance Practice I was struck by the similarities between its flow and the gradual unfolding of Reich’s music. The smooth surface of Hartenberger’s writing belies the layers of experiential, theoretical, and anecdotal analysis that lie underneath. Like the percussionist drumming out resultant patterns heard in the polyrhythm mix, one phrase at a time, Hartenberger makes a case for the ways in which music ‘with rhythm as one of its primary structural components can be spine-tingling and beautiful’ (239). Performance Practice is a systematic and nuanced unpacking of the thinking, structures, and playing techniques involved in Reich’s early works, leading us ‘beneath the surface of the music to the joy of rhythmic beauty’ (ibid.).”
• does the power of habit help musicians. This search brought you to my post on Charles Duhigg’s The Power Of Habit. In my post I wrote about applying lessons from the book to music (specifically to an ill-conceived but experimentally intentioned attempt to get into country music):
“Reading Duhigg’s book it struck me that as music listeners we often approach our favorite musics as kinds of habits with their own cues, routines, and rewards. Music can give us a kind of ‘fix’ of our favorite sound combinations. What’s more, it’s also excellent at creating desire within its own structures–setting up stimulus cues through melody, harmony, and rhythm and then prolonging our wait for the reward—like that huge chorus, the cathartic chord cadence, the infectious hook, or the massive beat.”
• michel bras. This search brought you to my post on a documentary about the (self-taught) French chef Michel Bras. In my post I wrote:
“As is the case with someone who experiences synesthesia (experiencing one sensory domain in terms of another–like hearing a chord and seeing the color purple, etc.), Bras is taking in something visual but funneling it through olfactory means: a sight becoming a taste (not to mention a texture, a set of relations and contrasts). It’s all about one of my favorite processes: transformation. And not only does Bras work cross-sensorially to transform elements from one sphere to another, he also gets deeply into the materials of his craft…”
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