poetry
-
Interesting Musicians
Have you noticed that the interesting musicians make sounds unlike everyone else? Have you noticed that the interesting musicians move you in ways not measurable? Have you noticed that the interesting musicians devise one-off musical systems? Have you noticed that the interesting musicians use old instruments in novel ways? Have you noticed that the interesting… Continue reading
-
Talking About Musical Time
J. and I were talking about musical technique of a sort, maybe something more. We were talking about the feel of another drummer’s time, about how in tiny ways it sounded wonky. He plays louder instead of stronger I say making gestures like clouds. J. reaches for a conclusion already formed. His playing doesn’t have… Continue reading
-
The Percussionist
The next time you’re at a concert notice the melodists up front –those singing, strumming, bowing or blowing through pipes– and watch them sway with the tune as if they invented its themes as if they’re unlocking its emotions then notice the rhythmicists at the back –those drumming hammer blows or mallet strikes– and feel how they… Continue reading
-
The Sampler
It begins with a sound I want but have not earned the right to use because the sound isn’t from me I didn’t make it it isn’t mine it had a life before I came along to yank it forward in time separate it from its context ignoring its history I just need its potential… Continue reading
-
Dialed In
The phrase posits people as a set of knobs for twisting lining up their numbers as if concentration is a radio or combination lock in search of the right station reducing the static click into action to hack thinking input the numbers quantify the self put it on the line believing that performing is running… Continue reading
-
Alien Aurality
Imagine how an alien sensibility might hear your music as a series of sound-gestures meaning otherwise than what practiced moves should mean so that jazz isn’t swing rock doesn’t rebel classical can’t conjure and dance won’t trance as the sensibility hears through and beyond your musical moves past even their signals’ social and resonant rapport… Continue reading
-
The Bucket Drummer
The bucket drummer plays the same beat every night which I notice as I walk by the corner of 42nd and Broadway hearing his plastic rim shots and salad bowl pings ricochet off the billboards like rhythm shrapnel played at the same tempo too an optimal groove showing off his handiwork keeping our attention aloft… Continue reading
-
On 12/8
Four circles, stutter steps, round corners, left-right-left, sliding fluid, advanced groove, nighttime rhythmics, swing defiance, human not machine, dance essence, remix resistant, pure meter, African timescape, multiple-clocked, now count it off: ah one (two) three (four) five six (seven) eight (nine) ten (eleven) twelve… Continue reading
-
On 4/4
Foursquare, lockstep, sharp-cornered, left-right, marching rigid, beginner’s groove, daylight rhythmics, default-quantized, machined not human, pop essence, remix template, tempered meter, western timescape, Euro-clocked, now count it off: ah one two three four… Continue reading
-
A Creative Compass: Music Is Feeling, Not Sound
In the second stanza of his poem “Peter Quince at the Clavier”, Wallace Stevens makes a simple observation about the nature of music with an acuity that exceeds the findings of the most sophisticated music theorists: “Music is feeling, then, not sound.” Stevens brings our attention to one of music’s central curiosities: how it’s built from… Continue reading
brettworks 
You must be logged in to post a comment.