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Working Knowledge: A Composer’s Thinking
Play for a while— nothing sounds good, this isn’t working (despair). Try again, play for a while— a few moments sounds ok, but this still isn’t working (despair). Realize you’re not listening to what you’re doing— so play again, this time listening to what is, not what isn’t: now you head in a different direction… Continue reading
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Strike & Vibrate
It’s such an obviously known fact to us that we never talk about it, but musicians have intimate relationships with vibration. Singers vibrate themselves, string and horn players vibrate their intricate wood and metal contraptions through bowing or blowing, pianists press keys that strike the piano’s tuned strings, and so on. Even electronic musicians are attuned… Continue reading
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Arrows Of Attention: 100 Words As Creative Actions
1. Accept 2. Accumulate 3. Age 4. Animate 5. Articulate 6. Assign 7. Borrow 8. Brighten 9. Build 10. Channel 11. Chart 12. Compress 13. Complexify 14. Configure 15. Contour 16. Copy 17. Counterpoint 18. Darken 19. Decorate 20. Define 21. Delay 22. Delete 23. Detune 24. Diminish 25. Doubt 26. Drum 27. Duplicate 28.… Continue reading
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Brett’s Sound Picks: Oliver Alary’s “Pieces For Sine Wave Oscillators”
(You wouldn’t think sine waves could be so warm, so evocative of musical places you didn’t know you wanted to be. This is a beautiful recording.) Continue reading
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Resonant Thoughts: Barbara Gail Montero’s “Thought In Action” (2016)
“In the arts the best performances allow observers to witness some deliberate, conscious thought in action. Consider the difference between listening to someone lecture on her feet and listening to someone read a paper…The performance bereft of the mind would be, in certain respects, like watching a machine: although the output could be amazing, the… Continue reading
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