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brettworks

thinking through music


  • April 30, 2021

    Notes On Structure And Sound Design 

    One production/compositional strategy that I find perpetually useful is to keep different components of my workflow distinct. For example, rather than create a unique sound first and then play something using that sound, I play using a generic sound (e.g. a piano) and then later change the sound into something more interesting (or not). In… Continue reading

    Production Stories
  • April 29, 2021

    Art About Music: Ernie Barnes’ “Song of Myself (c. 1970)

    Continue reading

    art about music
  • April 28, 2021

    Brett’s Sound Picks: Jim Copperthwaite and Jono Buchanan’s “Emerging Truth” (2021)

    (The Playlist.) Continue reading

    Brett’s Sound Picks
  • April 27, 2021

    Resonant Thoughts: Milan Kundera On Composing, Writing, And Automatism

    “Today one can compose music with a computer, but the computer always existed in composers’ heads—if they had to, composers could write sonatas without a single original idea, just by ‘cybernetically’ expanding on the rules of composition. Janáček’s purpose was to destroy this computer … My purpose is like Janáček’s: to rid the novel of… Continue reading

    Resonant Thoughts
  • April 26, 2021

    Variations On Palestrina’s “Missa Nigra Sum” (1590)

    Continue reading

    Uncategorized
  • April 23, 2021

    Five Levels Of Pulsation

    (Hint: On this blog’s webpage, listen to all five videos simultaneously.) Continue reading

    pulsation, pulseology, Uncategorized
  • April 22, 2021

    Brett’s Sound Picks: r beny’s “we grow in a gleam” (2021)

    (The Playlist.) Continue reading

    Brett’s Sound Picks
  • April 21, 2021

    Art About Music: Pieter de Grebber’s “Musicians” (c. 1620-23)

    Continue reading

    art about music
  • April 20, 2021

    Notes On Making Music And Levels Of Experience

    Usually I stay preoccupied with the nuts and bolts of putting music together–getting a performance down, arranging parts, designing sounds, and editing. But recently it occurred to me (while away from the screen) that making music is always about at least two levels of experience. The first level is what I just referred to as… Continue reading

    observation
  • April 19, 2021

    Open Ended

    Continue reading

    sketch, techno-musical systems
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Thomas Brett is a musician and writer who holds a PhD in ethnomusicology from New York University. He is the author of Principles of Electronic Music Production and The Creative Electronic Music Producer, a book described by Sound On Sound magazine as “a deep philosophical analysis of the various creative inspirations, ideas and processes involved in producing electronic music.” His essays have appeared in the journals Popular Music and Popular Music and Society, as well as edited collections by Routledge, Oxford, and Cambridge University presses. Thomas has played percussion on Broadway since 1997 and writes about music at brettworks.com.

Recent Posts

  • Unquantized (Remodel)
  • Curating The Week: The Brand Age, Selling Out, Sync Music
  • Resonant Thoughts: John Ashbery’s “A Wave” (1984)
  • Art About Music: Google’s Lyria 3 (2026)
  • Studio Observations: Listening To Improvisation

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