Friday, August 29, 2014

Sangfroid

The natural state of things is neither random nor chaotic.


Cultural disorder is always reflected in music, but this is a contrived appearance. The true disorder of noise, confusion, disturbance, agitation, and illness is found in the unquiet mind, and represented by stylized musical compositions and performances that speak to diverse levels of individual alienation and social unrest.

While this may be interesting, for what it is, it is rarely necessary or desirable, even when it rises, as a footnote to history, to the level of art.

What is essential is clarity and balance in the face of reality, whether it rises in tranquility or through a fierce act of will, and the creative courage to realize these virtues in works of vigorous, well-reasoned expression.

Thursday, August 28, 2014

Mobility

Constant movement perpetuates the illusion of freedom.


Most music will further augment this appearance.  But it is no more than this, an appearance only, at times a delusion, thoroughly subjective and emotionally vapid.

The world is not still, and continues apace, forces in motion traveling inexorably toward their respective outcomes.  This is the realm of the real, and the establishment of one's correspondence to it, whether in accord or estranged, is a matter of reason and will, or deficits thereof.

Clarity arrives with illumination or disillusion, brought about through accident or by contemplation and reflection. Consider sound works created to engage thought and preserve equanimity as meditations on the journey of life.

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Auditory Engagement

As an active process, listening identifies and analyzes; as a passive process, hearing perceives as one is otherwise engaged in other activities.


With this understanding, sounds may be designed for entirely different purposes than those typical of most musical compositions, and for more interesting and creative pursuits than relaxation and simple diversion.

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Atemporal Music

Out of radio and recording technology emerged the three to four minute popular song.


Even so, modern innovations in technology and musical artistry extended the length of recorded works, highlighting the subtleties of composition and expression evident, by the mid to late nineteen fifties, in albums such as Miles Davis' Kind Of Blue.

Now, for composer and listener, time is of far less consequence, and the aesthetic of creative listening anticipates sound works reflecting the nature of these profound changes in both audio recording and the experience of music.

Monday, August 25, 2014

Rise

Ideas must be expressed, concepts realized, and works of art created.


One may have no expectation for remuneration, or appreciation for efforts of any kind.

There are no incentives for creation beyond the need to reach for something, anything, greater than the given mediocrity.

But art will be.

Sunday, August 24, 2014

Technique, Style, Impression

The works of an artist stand as manifestations of that artist's will.


Consider sound compositions devoted to the realization of environmental conditions in terms of emergence, dynamic flux, and dispersal.  Such works will reflect deliberation and action as well as individuality of perception and expression, yet they will remain impersonal by design.

The listener will be immersed in atmospheres that have led the composer to vanish from the scene.