brettworks

thinking through music

essays

  • 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

  • Music’s Complex Problem

    Édouard Vuillard, Morning Concert (1937-38) Why do we turn to music when there are so many other artistic, physical, social, trivial, and spiritual pursuits claiming our attention? One reason is that music is a multimodal experience that is already meaningfully integrated into our lives. Music is everywhere as a tacit shared language, a perpetual underscore… Continue reading

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