musings
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On Diagrammatic Thinking
Here are some concepts that have helped me in my work: 1. Keep going straight until you have to turn. 2. Find the points of overlap among your projects. 3. Notice the resonances outwards from your initial idea. 4. Make things in series. Continue reading
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On How Composers Listen To Their Own Work
Having recently finished a project and waiting for it to be mastered, I found myself spending a few minutes each day listening to the pieces. I did this listening while doing other things like making toast or tidying up the apartment, and more often than not I listened from another room, letting the sounds move Continue reading
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On Leaving Space In Music
The other evening I felt like listening to some “zone out” music on my way home from work, so I put on Harold Budd’s Perhaps, a collection of piano music. As I walked the last few blocks from the subway I took measure of the great space in Budd’s improvisations–in the spaces he leaves between Continue reading
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Reflections On Richard McGuire’s “Here”
“I had this motto that I was going to make the big things small and the small things big.” – Richard McGuire (quoted in The New Yorker, November 17, 2014). Richard McGuire’s Here is a graphic novel that presents a poetic mediation on place and time. The book focuses on a single room in a Continue reading
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On (Mis)Trusting Music: A Subtext To This Blog
I don’t trust music. Music shapes and directs my perception too much–telling me when and how to feel. How can it do that? Not just, what gives it the right to do that, but practically speaking, how does it pull off this trick? I can’t see or touch music, or ever seem to get to Continue reading
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On Ventrilo-Reading: How We Read Our Own Writing To See What We’re Trying To Say
Something I have been thinking about off and on for a while now (a few years?) is the question of how we read our own writing, especially during the editing stages. What sensibility kicks in when we evaluate and revise the pieces we’ve been working on in search of ways to make them better? In Continue reading
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On Creative Constraints: Inhabiting The Midrange In Music
A few years ago I bought a pair of monitors for my computer for working on music. Since limited desk space was a consideration, I chose a small size: the woofer speaker on each monitor is only about 4 inches in diameter. The sound of the monitors is uncommonly rich and powerful though, with a Continue reading
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On Musical Time And Running Speed
One night I was playing my part, listening to the part of another musician. All systems were running smoothly, and we were in sync. Then, suddenly, I had a sense that the other musician was pushing the time, just a hair. My ears perk up: Oh, this is interesting. I was sure of my sense that Continue reading
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