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Making Music Is Phenomenology
“I was thinking, yes, but in shifting shapes and rhythms and dimly colored vectors, thinking with my senses, feeling my way toward insights and understandings that had more the form of feelings blooming in my belly than of statements being spoken within my skull.” David Abram, Becoming Animal (2011), p. 112 Making music is phenomenology—accessing… Continue reading
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Resonant Thoughts: Hua Hsu’s “Stay True: A Memoir” (2022)
“Music no longer modeled a better world.” “She was asking, what is history? Do you see yourself in it? Where did you find your models for being in the world? How did you learn about love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice? She was looking for turning points. Maybe a feeling,… Continue reading
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Windows Of Attention
Consider two scenes. You’re on your way somewhere–riding the elevator, walking, or sitting on the train–listening to music. You don’t have much time so you listen closely and the music has an urgency about it. You notice details in the sounds, details you hadn’t noticed before. You’re sitting at an instrument, making music. You were… Continue reading
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Attention Through Invention And Intention: Notes On Aphex Twin
Recently I was listening to Aphex Twin (Richard D. James)’s music—tracks both older and more recent—and was struck by the ways the music held my attention. James is legendary, in part because of the consistent musicality and inventiveness of his work, and also because his assets as a producer are all-encompassing: his productions are both… Continue reading
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Resonant Thoughts: Benedicte Maurseth’s “To Be Nothing: Conversations With Knut Hamre, Hardanger Fiddle Master” (2019)
“Ah, but what is inspiration, exactly? Is it something that comes to us spontaneously? Or is inspiration something that helps the flow of spontaneity? Or perhaps the only way of creating something spontaneous is by using the knowledge we gain from hard, methodical work? I would lean toward the latter. I have never understood people… Continue reading
