Thomas Brett
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On Janet Cardiff’s Forty-Part Motet
When you go up to the second floor of MoMA PS 1 in Long Island City, Queens and walk down the hallway you can already hear the ethereal floating voices of Canadian artist Janet Cardiff’s sound art exhibit coming from a large room around the corner, beckoning you to take a closer listen. Walking into the room… Continue reading
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On Geoff Dyer’s But Beautiful As Music Criticism
“I’ve always believed that an artist is someone who turns everything that happens to him to advantage.” – Geoff Dyer One of the limits of writing about music, of music criticism, is that words routinely feel inadequate for capturing and rendering music’s essence. Writers who write about music also have to face the obvious fact that they’re trying to make… Continue reading
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On The Rhythms In Bollywood Films
Last week I attended a Powerpoint talk at my local public library given by a young Indian musician and composer named Rushi Vakil who spoke about the rhythms of Bollywood films. Surveying the history of Bollywood from the 1950s to today, Vakil traced the use of different traditional Indian rhythmic cycles known as taals as well as western music beat… Continue reading
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On Computers, Bicycles and Minds
“In my perspective … science and computer science is a liberal art, it’s something everyone should know how to use, at least, and harness in their life. It’s not something that should be relegated to 5 percent of the population over in the corner. It’s something that everybody should be exposed to and everyone should have mastery… Continue reading
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Atul Gawande On Performance And Coaching
In his recent New Yorker article “Personal Best” (October 3 2011), physician and writer Atul Gawande explores the question of whether or not professionals–such as say, doctors or teachers–might benefit from having personal coaches watch them as they work and then provide performance critiques. For most of us, once we finish school and get out into the working… Continue reading
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On The Inner Life Of Sampling
I’m at the computer, headphones on, Ableton Live software open, listening closely to audio sample loops that I’ve made of Wonders, a CD of marimba and vibraphone music I recorded eleven short years ago. (How time flies!) Why am I spending my time like this, mouse-clicking around loops of my musical past? What am I thinking about as… Continue reading
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On Blowing Zen: Finding An Authentic Life
“Listening is the gateway to liberation.” – On Blowing Zen In his book Blowing Zen: Finding An Authentic Life (HJ Kramer, 2000), Englishman Ray Brooks tells a story about discovering the shakuhachi flute while living abroad in Japan with his wife, finding a series of shakuhachi master teachers with whom to study, and finally, through dedicated practice and direction, becoming… Continue reading
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Sound Advice: Frank Gehry Speaks
“Your best work is you’re expressing yourself. Now, you may not be the best at it, but when you do it you’re the only expert in it. When I teach students in architecture I try to get them to understand that they have a signature– their body, their hand-eye coordination, their biological make-up.” Continue reading
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On Music and Discipline: Anna Goldsworthy’s Piano Lessons
Anna Goldsworthy’s memoir Piano Lessons (2010) is a coming of age story about a girl growing up and learning to play the piano in Australia. From age nine to her late teens, Goldsworthy’s teacher was Russian émigré and master pianist Eleonora Sivan. Over the years, Sivan guides her pupil through increasingly advanced piano technique and the great keyboard literature of Chopin, Bach, Mozart,… Continue reading
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On Sounds And Silence: Travels With Manfred Eicher
Last week I attended the New York City premiere of Sounds And Silence, a documentary about the work of ECM record label founder and producer Manfred Eicher. ECM is known for its exquisitely recorded releases by modern composers, jazz improvisers, folk and world music artists. There’s a lot of natural resonance and space on ECM releases, partly due to the… Continue reading
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