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brettworks

thinking through music


  • December 6, 2021

    Z Solo

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    soloing
  • December 3, 2021

    On Beginning Music Not With Silence 

    Consider an idea:  begin a piece of music not with silence, but with a soundscape from nature playing through your speakers or headphones.  Use this soundscape not as a part of your piece or the piece itself but as a springboard for the first sounds you’ll make or use, the first first chords you’ll play, the first beat you’ll… Continue reading

    soundscapes
  • December 2, 2021

    Resonant Thoughts: Ira Glass On Taste And Work

    “All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But it’s like there is this gap. For the first couple years that you’re making stuff, what you’re making isn’t so good. It’s not that great. It’s trying to be good, it has ambition to be good, but it’s… Continue reading

    Resonant Thoughts
  • December 1, 2021

    Brett’s Sound Picks: Girolamo Frescobaldi’s “Fiori musicali: Toccata per le levatione, F 12.31” (1635) Arr. bY Anna-Liisa Eller

    (One of my favorite recordings of 2021. Information on the kannel is here.) (Playlist.) Continue reading

    Uncategorized
  • November 30, 2021

    Art About Music: Emil Rau’s “A Serenade” (1937)

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    art about music
  • November 29, 2021

    Cadences

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    bottom-up theory, cadences, chillout music
  • November 26, 2021

    Curating The Week: DAWs, The Creator Economy, How To mix

    • An article about DAWs (digital audio workstation software). “In some ways, the DAW replaced the piano as the primary site of solitary musical expression, retreating from living rooms to glowing screens in share house bedrooms. Music creation ever since has never been so lonely.” • An article on the creator economy.  “When I imagine… Continue reading

    Uncategorized
  • November 24, 2021

    Resonant Thoughts: Edward Tatnall Canby’s “Synthesized Music” (1955)

    [The writer is referring to the recording, The Sounds and Music of the RCA Electronic Music Synthesizer, 1955] “The fancy music that is here synthesized is absolutely astonishing. Few of us would have imagined that so much progress had been made. But most listeners won’t be able to suppress a snicker or two, in the… Continue reading

    Uncategorized
  • November 23, 2021

    Art About Music: Edgar Degas’s “Café Singer” (1879)

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    art about music, Uncategorized
  • November 22, 2021

    Ambient Music 10/31/21

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    Uncategorized
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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.

Recent Posts

  • Curating The Week: The Brand Age, Selling Out, Sync Music
  • Resonant Thoughts: John Ashbery’s “A Wave” (1984)
  • Art About Music: Google’s Lyria 3 (2026)
  • Studio Observations: Listening To Improvisation
  • Database: Shane Parish on Revoicing and the Game Of Subtraction

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