Unknown Unknowns

Some, actually, are curious as to why things are as they are.

But this is an act of defiance.  One who does not simply accept must remember this, in any set of circumstances.  If art and music are to be valued, they must change more than minds. They must themselves change, and in doing so change perceptions of being and consciousness.

Formality

It is sensory impression, not context, that completes experience.

Programmed to accept and engage only with specific contexts, the listener remains in known territory, and further, is unaware of any other.  And while the listener is not at fault, only the listener can change the situation.  The composer is in the act of exploration, and this is what work demands.

Limits

The future is unknown, though present.

For the composers, it is just over the horizon, that is to say, it is within earshot.  In the gradual, measured epochs of media and culture, there is only the present, continually revised.

Cult of Personality

Sound possesses character and identity.

Whether heard in music generally or in artificial sonic atmospheres, these qualities remain clear: character is a function of ethical considerations, and identity is the composer's expression.

And culture, events, and the collective mentality, especially, either shapes and defines the personal perspective of the composer, or the artist transcends the "common ground" and, by virtue of the total effect of the work, holds elitism in contempt, with disdain born of right reason.

Degrees

It is said the enlightened mind is capable of experiencing, from time to time, reality as it is.

The artist, on the other hand, gives expression to reality within the confines of experience.

Middle Way

Recognize moderation, if you will.

Rather than indulging extremes, choose subtleties; neither harsh nor without vigor, but dynamic, and elevated.  This is the art of sound, of shadings, colors, and contemplative engagement.

Zone Crossing II

The history of the uncanny recounts rare experiences of ineffable music.

Whatever its reality, the sounds heard by percipients of the extraordinary are extremely difficult to remember and virtually impossible to articulate.  I am not referencing the airs and reels of the Celtic "good folk", or the singing of Sirens, although these evoke common ideas of the supernatural, but rather a number of instances out of legend, some of which are said to have occurred within living memory. Notable episodes of this "music that is not music", of sounds that can neither be recreated nor their impressions forgotten, may be traced to Scotland, Eastern Europe, and, in the USA, North Carolina and Arizona.  But having no occasion of moment to share the details of my investigations into these peculiar areas, I can say that they inform, and continue, by continuing explorations to inform, all my own "music that is not music" whether these compositions suggest the classical tone poems or the ambient atmospherics of a more modest, if modern, nature.