Week 45 11/10/19

There will always be elements within a culture that seek to manage a decline of that culture.

When these these social and political elements are ascendant, they align to crush individual freedom.  This is a warning against the origins of totalitarianism, and the mechanisms by which it seeks to destroy freedom of thought and expression.

They cannot defeat armies, so first they strangle the Arts.

Week 34 8/25/2019

Forces of history and individual experience are in constant flux.

Inevitable change may appear, at first, to be unexpected, yet clarify according to these factors.

In creative work this requires an understanding of  problem-solving and opportunity, without the imposition of untested theory.  Analysis and action are interwoven in progress toward outcomes.

Week 22 6/2/19

Assume any point of view.

What is essential is to separate the false from the true, and appearance from reality.

Week 2 1/13/19

Why is it necessary to understand the rise and fall of things?

Without interference, cultural events move forward and expand. Intentional disruption of the way of nature ultimately yields grave consequences.

Ambimusica.com

Week 1 1/6/19

Extend moments of clarity.

The Art of Sound is not limited to expressing emotion.

Ambimusica.com

Week 49 12/10/18

Mythology and folklore speak of music as a magical force.

Sounds associated with enchantment and sorcery are at a far distance from contemporary understanding, being associated with narratives of extraordinary events.  But there is more.

When music is central to tales of the strange and paranormal, attempts to evoke its nature falter.  It is invariably described as otherworldly, beautiful, mystical... and altogether unlike anything that would fit a modern definition of "music".  It defies memory of rhythm and melody, leaving only a deep, lasting impression of high strangeness.

The composer would do well who would evoke, and repeatedly express, this formlessness.

Ambimusica.com

Week 27 7/8/18

The creative process exists in a continuum of events.

One thing may be a coincidence, and one thing may not be, and intentional. The process continues in motion, and remains so.

Ambimusica.com

Week 23 6/11/17

Subjective emotion is not reality, as the wretched, apparently, would require others to believe.

Examples are so plentiful as to be ubiquitous, and are found in every contemporary arena. There is no greater evil in expression, artistic or otherwise, than that which uses the truth to bear false witness.

Ambimusica.com

Week 18 5/7/17

Many find "ambient music" desirable as a retreat from the stresses of contemporary life.

This is worthwhile as a beginning of understanding.  Plainly, we are conditioned to certain ideas that produce expectations of life and our place within it. We expect "intensity" and it is expected of us. We expect "extremes" and believe them to be "normal" within the scheme of things.  But this is a kind of programming that is deleterious to elevated states of being and consciousness.

It is necessary to discern what stresses in our experience lead us to clearly appreciate the cultural expressions that directly oppose them.  Gaining a fundamental sense of such things, rather than ignoring them in a specious "quest for authenticity", makes perceptual change permanent, rather than simply possible.

Ambimusica.com

Some Will Understand, Others Will Not

Bring the uncanny into expression.  It is a tall order, yet it can be done.

The beginning is abstract, that is to say, theoretical.  This vision must comport with the possibility of perceptual reality that may be rendered in concrete form.  For the composer, this acknowledges the fact that sounds must be transformed and synthesized to evoke extramundane experience, and then juxtaposed and reproduced in aesthetic contexts unrelated to designs generally attributed to music, while being accessible within the sphere of art.

What the mind conceives, the hand may render.  Listen, and hear.

Ambimusica.com

Known, Unknown

In every art, it is gesture that determines outcomes.

Neither the assertive act nor the reserved one guarantees success or failure. The authentic gesture accomplishes everything, while the artificial, forced, or otherwise unsound gesture realizes nothing.

Levitation and Somnolence

In contemporary culture, observe a pervading, and rather benighted, materialism.

It is a point of view without a fragment of merit, one unworthy of empathy, and one that most often sees good will as a weakness to be exploited.

This is not a modern perspective, being far too incurious and complacent. It is by no means a measure of sophistication to claim to believe that every question of grand moment is long settled, and that life, being metaphysically worthless, is fit only for an ideal of epicurean hedonism.

The abysmally ignorant arrive such a conclusion with far less effort than the "highly-educated".

No, the modern perspective is informed, analytical, and cognizant of cultural and historical forces that elevate the fundamentals of human understanding.

Here, find the voice of perception, realism, and critical, open awareness that says, "There is much more to experience, much more to be known. There is always more."

What Is, What Is Not

The artist is often called upon to make a distinction between appearance and reality.

It is understood that art is a representation, and that this understanding is a responsibility of vision, not mere propaganda to be manipulated for some other purpose.  To do less is its own punishment.

Trust

Media culture demands nothing, and requires assent in everything.

Art, conversely, expects insight, foresight, individuality, and freedom of expression.

Across Decades, Over Hours

Linear forms are predictable, against the nature of reality and change.

Expansive forms develop along mental and temporal dynamics, and may be applied to all conditions, all settings, all arts.  These are the critical strategies and tactics that draw out the future into the moment now.

Reason and Art

Imagination and will bring potential realities into being.

It is insight and foresight that tell us who we are and what we can be, rather than having no other alternative than to live "in the moment" and passively accept the status quo.

Continuum and Flux II

Consciousness, to the extent of human knowledge, is a rarity in the vast universe.

What we live, know, come to know, and express has value. And it is only a beginning.

Exercise VIII

Identify a continuous source of sound.

Give attention to the sound and the surroundings until no longer conscious of the sound.

Recognize, to the extent possible, the moment of becoming conscious of the sound again.

Analyze and note the differences in (1) the quality of sound and (2) the nature of subjective and objective perception each time the sound re-emerges into consciousness.

As in any exercise, make these steps habitual in the pursuit of creative, critical acumen.

Upheaval and Vision

It is nothing to bring about irrationality and chaos.

Only the most arduous efforts can focus and elevate aesthetic beauty out of disruption and turmoil, ignorance and evil.  But it can be done, and it has always been so.

Mythos

Every artist must speak independently.  I speak for none other than myself.

The progress of art in every form of expression is one of continual revelation.