brettworks

thinking through music

December 28, 2015

Curating The Week: Noise Music In Yoga Classes, Coldplay’s Banal/Powerful Music, And A Bluegrass Version Of A Metallica Song

1. An article about the use of noise music in yoga classes. “The focus of yoga creates a really good environment to appreciate sound, in a deep listening kind of way…Intense music creates a kind of mindfulness as well, in that it can be very aggressive in displacing thoughts.” 2. An essay about the banality/power… Continue reading

Curating The Week
December 24, 2015

Brett’s Sound Picks: Rebekka Karijord’s “Morula”

Rebekka Karijord’s two and a half-minute “Morula” seems built entirely out of voice. It begins with a simple sung arpeggio–a three chord, nine note statement. The voice seems processed, maybe auto-tuned, or maybe sampled. By the third time around its call is responded to in a higher register, with a contrasting shape. We also hear… Continue reading

Brett’s Sound Picks
December 22, 2015

Questions For A Composer About Music

How do you want people to use your music? Is it for sitting-still listening? Is it for dancing while listening? Is it to soundtrack a film? Is it to help you study? Is it to set a mood on a date? Is it to accompany a text? Is it a working through of a theory?… Continue reading

the poetics of music
December 17, 2015

What Is Adele Doing That So Many People Respond To?

The English pop megastar Adele has an epic voice and it’s this quality of epic-ness that sets her apart and draws us towards her music. What makes her voice epic? Her flawless sense of pitch, her phrasing, her all out power. Most of us who aren’t singers or have no particular interest in the voice–this… Continue reading

Adele, music reviews, the epic
December 15, 2015

Curating The Week: The Appeal Of Analog, The Casio MT-40, And Lydia Goehr on The Functions Of Music

1. An article on the hold of the analog in the digital world. “It turns out that while the digital often comes close to crushing its analog precedents, that process can do something curious to its putative victims: underscore their virtues, elevate their status and transform the formerly workaday into something rarefied, special, even luxurious…What… Continue reading

Curating The Week
December 10, 2015

Music And Attention

Focus on me music says, to bridge memory and anticipation, to order the scatterbrain– improve your functioning, learn to be better through style. Pay attention to my tones in succession or vertical stacking, follow them along their travels, soaring over landscapes, skimming across water. Register my rhythms in unison- or clashing-ness, vibrate with their architectures,… Continue reading

the poetics of music
December 8, 2015

Notes On The Africa Express Version Of Terry Riley’s “In C”

“Rules are not as important as results.” – Terry Riley (from an interview here) If you happened to be knowledgeable about the rhythmic riches of African musics and also happened to attend one of the early performances of Terry Riley’s pioneering minimalist piece “In C” in 1964, you might have noticed that something was up. You… Continue reading

African music, music reviews
December 6, 2015

Uncritical Listening

Only the simplest music I get analytically, unpacking without trying, dividing without counting, hearing without thought transcription. When complexity sings I take a step back to view its note shapes from afar, observing without judging, counting without unpacking, suspicious of their busy work. It was a piece by Takemitsu– I noticed one tone, the first,… Continue reading

the poetics of music
December 3, 2015

Curating The Week: The Cove App, The Effects Of Extreme Music, And The Origins Of Rock and Roll

1. An article about Cove, an app that helps users make sense of their emotions using music. “The app helps you make music that shows how you feel, whether it’s happy, sad or anywhere in between. After making these mood pieces, you can share them with important friends or family, which can help them understand your confusing… Continue reading

Curating The Week
November 29, 2015

Inherent Rhythms

The sound men swept in on their once-a-year visit to listen to the show, to hear the orchestra’s sounds with outsider ears. Could I hear that percussion part again? one of them asked through a microphone, wanting to inspect an African drum in isolation. The drum played solo, self-conscious of its double sound of bass… Continue reading

the poetics of music

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.