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On Listening Fast And Slow
In his book, Thinking Fast And Slow, the eminent psychologist Daniel Kahneman describes two modes of thinking that steer our judgements and decision-making. The first type, System 1, is fast, intuitive, and emotional: the second, System 2, is slower, more considered, and logical. I have talked about Kahneman’s book on my blog, here. • Recently I remembered… Continue reading
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How Music Lost Its Body
Not so long ago music was a relationship between a musician and an instrument, a performance in front of an audience, a sharing of a space through sound. Then those spinning discs took music from the musician, the instrument, and the space of performance, bringing sound right into ears, minds, and hands as a commodity form.… Continue reading
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On Words With Resonance: Alva Noë’s “Varieties Of Presence”
“Experience, in the large, and in the small, is complex and manifold; it is always an encounter with hidden complexity. Experience is fractal in this sense. Perceptual experience extends to the hidden. In a way, for perception, everything is hidden. Nothing is given.” -Alva Noë, Varieties Of Presence (2012, p. 19) Continue reading
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On Words With Resonance: Janet Malcolm’s “Thoughts On Autobiography From An Abandoned Autobiography”
“Memory glimmers and hints, but shows nothing sharply or clearly. Memory does not narrate or render character. Memory has no regard for the reader. If an autobiography is to be even minimally readable, the autobiographer must step in and subdue what you could call memory’s autism, its passion for the tedious. He must not be… Continue reading
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On Words With Resonance: Matthew B. Crawford’s “The World Beyond Your Head”
“The musician’s power of expression is founded upon a prior obedience. To what? To her teacher, perhaps, but this isn’t the main thing–there is such thing as the self-taught musician. Her obedience rather is to the mechanical realities of her instrument.” -Matthew B. Crawford, The World Beyond Your Head (2015), p. 128 Continue reading
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Brett’s Sound Picks: Rachel Grimes’ “Book Of Leaves”
If, as the composer Steve Reich once said in the liner notes for his Desert Music, the evolution of tonality can be imagined as a raft bearing a flickering flame floating slowly downriver towards unknown waters, then the modern composer’s use of harmony is always worth thinking through. Pay attention to the colors and shades… Continue reading
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On The Ergonomics Of Music: Reflections On Flow In Steve Reich’s “Drumming”
“But how the paths sounded to me was deeply linked to how I was making them. There wasn’t one me listening, and another one playing along paths. I listened-in-order-to-make-my-way.” -David Sudnow, Ways of the Hand (MIT Press 2001, p. 40) Every once in a while warming up before a show I noodle around by playing… Continue reading
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Brett’s Sound Picks: Alva Noto’s “Xerrox”
Two pieces from Alva Noto’s Xerrox that I like: The first piece, “Xerrox 2ndevol”, has three layers at work: a soundscape of buzzing, a drone-chord that oscillates between a root note and its relative up a fifth, and a bubble lead tone that bounces among a few pitches, creating suspense. The second piece, “Xerrox Radieuse”,… Continue reading
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