Acclimation

Observe patterns of all types.

Habitual observation refines perception.  One begins to see, and hear, what others do not.

Song and Awakening

Observe music as a series of sound patterns.

Note that tone and intensity of sound establishes meaning in a musical composition to the same extent as lyrical content and vocal delivery.  Nothing more may be conveyed than a particular mood or attitude, yet there are no known limits to the degree to which intellectual and emotional stimulation is possible through immersion in sound.

Heard, Overheard, Listening

Every listener encounters sound individually.

Some ears are open, and some are closed.  The same holds true for minds.

New Sonic Awareness

Metaphor, in its most easily recognized form, exists in combinations of words and images.

It is the composition that develops sound as extended, or "epic" metaphor that illuminates a poetic potential in listening as well as unforeseen new directions in music.

Exercise X

Set aside all knowledge and conceptual ideas regarding "music".

Postulate a theory of "music" based solely upon the ways sound phenomena exist and are perceived.

Distant Present

Culture defines; the artist refines.

There will always be a struggle between complacency and risk.

Turning Century

Accept limits.  New York, Shanghai, Los Alamos, Beale Street, under the hot sky.

Defy limits.  These include all things that are merely, but thoughtlessly and oppressively, conventional, stultifying to the imagination, and, of course, totalitarian in nature.