Fire, Impact

Culture changes, whereas human nature is predictable.

But cultural arts have the potential to alter ideas, attitudes, and perceptions, even to the extent of ennobling the individual.

Some artists consider these facts in terms of profound responsibilities; others give no consideration.

Museum Muse

A key to the expansion of experience is perceptivity.

Consider a reality without Warhol, Dali, Picasso, Frank Zappa, the Velvet Underground, John Cage, William Burroughs, Norman Mailer and others of merit and vision across the cultural spectrum.

And, in fine, this is reality.

Trial and Departure from Error

Observe culture at it most frenetic, overwrought, and predictable.

This is the end result of constant subjection to immediacy, or attachment to contrived "issues" and specious appearances everywhere glaring as distractions of the moment now.

Patience refines gesture. The reality of permanent things is in the abstract. Such things as love and honor cannot be placed in a brightly decorated container and sold at what price the market will bear.

It is a matter of prolonged critical thought and contemplation to gain insight into elevated experience and meaning.

Such experiences do not happen randomly or suddenly, and the arts that reflect them offer both challenges and satisfactions far beyond the temporal and mundane.

Extinction of Ideas

Without thought there is only the necessity to conform. And it is a necessity, a survival skill.

This need never be, as with thought comes foresight, yet when the human condition trends toward vanity, self-obsession, and complacency, it is an ever-present danger. Thus the connection between the ancient and modern Stoic, the Zen archer, and the 21st century avant-garde artist and composer.

All must strike the same target in darkness.

Above the Hollow

Human skill sets exist that are neither intellectual nor physical.

These non-cognitive, perceptual abilities involve persistence of engagement, acquisition of aesthetic perspectives, and experiential recognition of objective reality in contrast to cultural narratives or "mere appearances".  They are also essential to what is commonly recognized as an individual's work ethic, whether in scholarly, artistic, athletic or business pursuits.

Development of such capacities enhances awareness and perception, and expands consciousness as well, but interest in these things is rare in any age or cultural setting.

Foresight and the Unforeseen

Culture is predictable to the extent that prevailing attitudes tend to conformity.

This is the tyranny of mass mentality that demands of the artist subservience to a single perspective and its every element and aspect.

But the artist brings wind, light, and thunder, filling mere chaos with the unexpected stillness of satori and epiphany.

Overwrite Antiquity

Forgotten events are in motion.

The composer will do well to capture their forces, origins, tones and dynamic movements.

Their essential natures may be lost to contemporary understanding, but not to the modern listener, who feels their impulses in the unformed sounds of imagination.