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Resonant Thoughts: On Pascal Quignard’s “The Hatred Of Music”
“Music is what man owes to time” (85). “It is possible that listening to music consists less in distracting be mind from ‘acoustic suffering’ than in struggling to reestablish animal alert. What characterizes harmony is that it resuscitates the acoustic curiosity that is lost as soon as articulated and semantic language spreads within us”… Continue reading
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On Music Performance As Epistemological Journey
An idea that has influenced me this past year comes from the writer Geoff Dyer: All the best essays are epistemological journeys from ignorance or curiosity to knowledge. I have mentioned Dyer numerous times on this blog. He’s the author of a remarkable fictionalized non-fiction book about jazz, But Beautiful, and a classic set of… Continue reading
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Gould’s Bach
Gould found music in geography fusing Bach with Canadian North cold weather counterpoint snow blanketed fugues solitary driving as three-part invention the self on wheels and radio hearing in seasons articulate matter. Continue reading
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Frustration Music
Composing fixes the broken sounds and captures out of reach melodies of every desire: distant scores passing arrangements living orchestrations soundtracks for the unheard experience is polyphonic but we sing only one line at a time. Continue reading
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Visual Culture
Maybe the Instagrammers are right— a photo’s worth is more than words’ affect shown besting the described colors not letters retro-filtered immediately digested chronicling proof that a selfie’s gift is adoring the present. Continue reading
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Searches That Brought You Here
• “Poets wear sombreros.” This search is a reference to a line in one of my favorite Wallace Stevens poems, “Six Significant Landscapes” (1916). The line–which actually reads “rationalists would wear sombreros”–appears at the end of the sixth and final stanza: “Rationalists, wearing square hats, Think, in square rooms, Looking at the floor, Looking at the… Continue reading
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Reset
In my current work of performing music, perhaps the most useful “secret” for maintaining a high standard of playing is my ability to reset. In my life outside of music, there are very few occasions in need of resetting—at home, there’s pressing the small button on the kitchen thermometer, or unplugging the cable modem now… Continue reading
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