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Composing By Playing
I want to begin the piece carefully, by considering my options and plotting a sensible route. But I can’t design from the top down, only from the ground up, so I begin playing to hear where that takes me. Whenever you’re in doubt about what to do or how to proceed, just start playing. By… Continue reading
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Musical Mindsets
When I think about strategies for composing music, I often think in terms of problem-solving within the process of doing whatever I’m doing. Most often it’s as simple as hearing what I don’t like, then trying out various solutions for fixing it. (Deleting notes is by far my favorite solution.) Other times it’s a little… Continue reading
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How Do You Listen To Music?
How do you listen to music? Do you listen analytically, trying to dissect it into its component parts? Do you listen impressionistically, letting it roll over you like waves? Do you lock into the beat or sing along to the melody? What in the sounds draws you in and keeps you there? Is this where… Continue reading
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Resonant Thoughts: George Coleman Gow’s “Rhythm: The Life Of Music” (1915)
“At the outset we have to remind ourselves that rhythm is not a factor essentially musical. Psychologically it is the apotheosis of the act of attention— attention at its greatest tension.” – George Coleman Gow, “Rhythm: The Life of Music,” in The Musical Quarterly, vol. 1, no. 4 (October 1915), pp. 637. Continue reading
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Timbrebuilding
“The power of art objects stems from the technical processes they objectively embody: the technology of enchantment is founded on the enchantment of technology. The enchantment of technology is the power that technical processes have of casting a spell over us so that we see the real world in an enchanted form.” -Alfred Gell, “The… Continue reading
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Resonant Thoughts: Tristan Garcia’s “The Life Intense” (2018)
“I hear a piece of music, and out of nowhere I’m surprised by an unexpected change of tuning, key, or rhythm. This variation might shake my ear out of its unfeeling slumber, a numbness brought on by what were all-too-predictable changes in the music at hand. Now I get the feeling that the piece is… Continue reading
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On Being Fluid And Deliberate
A fair many years ago at one of my music lessons my teacher, Russell, suggested that I make my body movements more fluid, more deliberate. I was playing a multi-percussion piece for marimba and some tom-toms, moving from one instrument group to another, probably rather abruptly. Russell suggested making the tempo of my gestures match the… Continue reading
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