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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
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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
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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
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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
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On More From Less: Haim’s “Right Now”
“Why does it have to take off in a conventional sense? Enjoy the layers instead.” (worst coast) “I don’t understand why people are complaining that this isn’t ‘going anywhere.’ Girl, it does not have to go anywhere! You hear that raw emotion in her voice? Yes queen!” (Becca Britton) Haim is a pop-rock band from Los Angeles… Continue reading
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Lessons From Italo Calvino’s “Reading A Wave”
If I were a fictionalist, I would write in the analytical-introspective manner of Italo Calvino (1923-1985). In Calvino’s novel Mr. Palomar, we follow one man’s attempts to increase his inner awareness by increasing his consciousness of his surroundings. Mr. Palomar is a practicing phenomenologist who tries to understand the world through all of its perceived details… Continue reading
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Curating The Week: Optimal Performance, Hearing Music, Kara-lis Coverdale
• An article by philosopher Barbara Gail Montero on the effortful aspects of optimal performance. (The author’s book on the topic is here.) “Flow sounds appealing, and it seems to frequently coincide with some of our most pleasurable pinnacles of human experience, but it doesn’t necessarily translate into optimal performance. In great athletes, performing artists,… Continue reading
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On Knowing Music In Practice And In Theory
What is the difference between knowing music practically (e.g. as a musician or composer) and knowing music theoretically (eg. as a musicologist, critic, or super-informed fan)? On the one hand, the musician/composer proceeds intuitively, building on his/her years of practical experience playing an instrument, or otherwise working with sounds. The musician/composer’s body is intimately involved… Continue reading
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