brettworks

thinking through music

February 8, 2016

Brett’s Sound Picks: Kara-lis Coverdale’s “Ad_renaline”

“Music is an adjectival experience.” -Simon Frith (Performing Rites, p. 263) The mood of Canadian organist and composer Kara-Lis Coverdale’s “Ad_renaline” is optimistic, though tinged with mystery too. The music is made up of layers of organ (organ-ish?) sounds and voices. We hear three pulsing staccato chords of uneven counts repeating a two measure phrase, with… Continue reading

Brett’s Sound Picks, criticism
February 7, 2016

Curating The Week: On Synchronization, Turning Art Into Sound, And How The Mind Affects The Body

• A piece about the reason why a group of metronomes will eventually synchronize with one another. “This process, known as phase synchronization, was first observed in pendulum clocks in 1657 by Christian Huygens. It has since been found in systems ranging from thermoacoustic engines in the lab to the rhythmic blinking of fireflies in nature.” • An article about a… Continue reading

Curating The Week
February 2, 2016

Juxtapositions: Edward Hopper’s “Nighthawks” (1942) And DJ Richard’s “Nighthawk” (2015)

Edward Hopper’s most iconic painting depicts several people in a city diner late at night. As with much of Hopper’s work, the mood of the scene is desolate, empty. The people seem more like concepts than characters, their individual life stories forever hidden from our view. In the Hopperian world, time itself is frozen.… Continue reading

criticism, juxtapositions
January 29, 2016

An Article In The Oxford Handbook Of Music And Virtuality

I have an article in The Oxford Handbook of Music and Virtuality (2016), edited by the late Sheila Whiteley and Shara Rambarran. The book’s thirty-one chapters, write the editors, examine “the intersections, mutations, and transmigrations of the virtual and the real” by offering “a kaleidoscope of interdisciplinary perspectives from scholars around the globe on the… Continue reading

book reviews
January 26, 2016

On Writing As Flying

Imagine you’re an attentive bird. You love flying because flying is what you do—it’s what you’re designed for. You’re soaring high above a landscape—riding the air currents, maybe somewhere in rural England, or Western Canada. You look down and notice the rolling hills, a stream that flows through them, and just off in the distance,… Continue reading

metaphor, writing
January 23, 2016

Curating The Week: Composed Music, Building Acoustics, Underwater Noise, And Spaced Repetition

• An article that proposes “Composed Music” to describe classical music. “Composed Music’s primary virtue is its blunt veracity. It is what it says it is: works by a singular mind, fixed and promulgated in written form. When you think about it, that is probably the one and only thing that unites all eras and… Continue reading

Curating The Week
January 22, 2016

From The Archives: Wonders (1997)

Music from my 1997 recording Wonders, scored for marimbas and vibraphones. Continue reading

from the archives, percussion
January 20, 2016

Notes on Dennis DeSantis’s “Making Music: 74 Creative Strategies For Electronic Music Producers”

“Making Music is not a collection of vague aphorisms. Instead, it combines motivational ideas about the philosophy and psychology of music-making with hands-on tools and techniques that musicians of all kinds can use to really get work done.” – Dennis DeSantis, Making Music Making Music: 74 Creative Strategies For Electronic Music Producers (2015) by Dennis… Continue reading

book reviews, creative strategies
January 12, 2016

Curating The Week: Criticism Of Music Criticism, Music In Advertising, And The Oldest Known Song

1. An article that considers the significance of the recent critical attention paid by (serious) music journalism towards (serious?) pop music. Case in point: the New York Times’ article and video documentary on the making of Justin Bieber’s “Where R Ü Now.” “The New York Times’ pieces challenge us as to how seriously we are prepared to… Continue reading

Curating The Week
January 8, 2016

100 Metaphors For Thinking Through Creativity

Creativity is a balancing act. Creativity is a candle that burns for a while. Creativity is a circuit. Creativity is a difference that makes the difference. Creativity is a game. Creativity is a key. Creativity is a lone voice. Creativity is an encounter. Creativity is an outpouring. Creativity is a radar system. Creativity is a… Continue reading

analogies, Creativity, metaphor

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.