The Art of Working

Artistic composition reflects method and technique, elevated by imagination.

Consequently, the spectator, percipient, and audience experience representations of reality according to myriad perspectives, from the plain and simple to the sophisticated and critical.

Regardless, labor focused upon clarity and integrity of expression conveys universal meanings.

Grasp and Release

The appeal of generic musical forms lies in their reflections of particular states of mind and emotion.

Forms in opposition rely on the same elements, particularly rhythms, and have the same appeal.

Then let us move away, outside, and beyond both scenarios, and direct the attention to different states of consciousness altogether.

Clearly,  these will be, in their diversity, more directly perceptual, contemplative, and reasoning in nature; they will be reached through different constructs of aesthetically purposeful sounds.

Shallows

The arts directly impact culture, just as they reflect it.

Among the impressions of the day are those that signal subjectivity and narrow predisposition, that is to say, intentionally incomplete perspective, on a variety of subjects.  For many this is acceptable-- it is the given, or the "received wisdom" in regard to cultural phenomena.

But the way of the artist is to broaden viewpoints, hazard the depths, propose possibilities, establish limits for their defining principles in expression (or exceed them for aesthetic purposes), and in doing so continually advance human awareness, clarifying the mysteries of life and consciousness.

To do less is to do very little indeed.

Outage

The power goes out, and most of the technology goes with it.

The ear adjusts to what we call silence as the eye adjusts to apparent darkness, and the sounds of the real surround consciousness.  This too is music, continuous music of unexpected beauty, always present yet rarely perceived.

Disconnection, Immersion

Technology may serve a variety of purposes, or be no more than a diversion.

In the former case, technology may yield increase in capability, expanding potential; yet it is clearly the latter that occupies the attention with little in the way of reward. Here, in fact, is an example of a situation in which power of choice rests with the individual will, and the artist acts accordingly.

Expression as Reflection

I want the listener to hear reality as I hear it.

By this I do not mean literally, as a recording of a particular environment would capture the sounds of nature or a cultural event.  Instead, listen through means of the stylized forms of aural imagery these compositions represent, as perceptual impressions, and hear the reality that is often obscured in the course of commonplace events.

Transit

Absent reason and virtue, there is clamor.

In the rise and fall of things, storms subside and reality returns to its natural state. Upon reflection, listener and composer discern between conditions that are auspicious and those that foreshadow weakness, collapse, and loss.

Every creative work is a contribution to culture. Within the culture the work is embraced or rejected, yet the artist must be indifferent to this.  Advancement or decline will proceed in either case.  What is of moment is expression and perspective, from which the future will spring.