brettworks

thinking through music

classical music

June 2, 2026

Music’s Complex Problem

Édouard Vuillard, Morning Concert (1937-38) Why do we turn to music when there are so many other artistic, physical, social, trivial, and spiritual pursuits claiming our attention? One reason is that music is a multimodal experience that is already meaningfully integrated into our lives. Music is everywhere as a tacit shared language, a perpetual underscore… Continue reading

essays

art, classical music, music, reviews, writing
February 5, 2025

On Writing Musics

Since I’m doing a lot of writing lately, I thought I’d share some of my favorite types of writing musics. Writing doesn’t, of course, need a soundtrack, but I find that the right music occupies whatever part of my brain I don’t need while thinking in words. With this in mind, here are some of… Continue reading

Uncategorized

bach, baroque-music, classical music, music
October 11, 2024

Same Walk, Different Music

Ravel/Peter Phillips, “Miroirs: No.5, La Vallée des Cloches” (1904-1906). MIDI’s non-electronic predecessor was the piano roll, a punch card-like storage medium that was used to direct “player” pianos in the late 19th- and early 20th-centuries. Piano rolls were continuous (looped) rolls of paper with perforated holes whose vertical and horizontal locations on the sheet represented,… Continue reading

same walk, different music

classical, classical music, maurice-ravel, music, piano
September 14, 2024

Curating The Week: “Neoclassical” Piano Music, Autechre, Ganavya

“Neoclassical music doesn’t cut through the noise of our society, rather it is camouflaged within it. It is superficially calming and pleasing and gives only the illusion of escape from ‘these uncertain times’. But to my ears it has a numbing quality, the musical equivalent of living blue-pilled in the Matrix, of ordering Deliveroo or… Continue reading

Curating The Week

classical music, music, neoclassical, piano
May 10, 2024

Same Walk, Different Music

Stars Of The Lid, “Even If You’re Never Awake.” Good music often doesn’t go how you thought it would go. It may have parts and sections that repeat, it may use recognizable sounds, it may introduce themes, it may have a discernible structure, but still it manages to surprise you by how it goes and… Continue reading

same walk, different music

classical music, music, musical instruments, new music, reviews
December 16, 2014

Curating The Week: Music-Related Stuff On The Internet

1. An interview with composer Phil Kline on “Unsilent Night,” his open-ended 1992 piece for mobile boomboxes (and now, iPhones). “What was most pleasantly surprising, when we hit ‘play’, and I heard the sound, was that it combined with the fabric and the soundscape of the city. It was like an elemental DNA connection. They… Continue reading

Curating The Week

classical music, Paul Morley, Phil Kline, Unsilent Night

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.