Opposing Forces

The medium is sound.  Vibrations generated in every possible way create panoramas, of the mind as well as of the environment.  Composer and listener move within these atmospheres, together and separately.

Timeless and universal themes and motifs carry the seeds of future expressions, and these often arrive in contrast to expectations, unfettered by either tradition or rebellion.  The extraordinary takes its own course of possibilities, clashing with the commonplace, beyond the view of entertainment media, the microscope of the cultural status quo.

Wave, Reflection, Revision, and Exploration

Musical instruments create easily identifiable timbres, their "signature" sounds.

The sounds of piano, guitar, drum and flute are distinctive; the fretless bass, baritone saxophone, timbales and harpsichord are equally unique.  Individual instruments possess wide variations in sound quality from others of their type, as do human voices.  Any and all combinations of instrumental and vocal arrangements may produce the generally recognized expressive forms associated with music, from ballads to symphonies, given their adherence to respective stylistic configurations.

The electronic or digital synthesizer, on the other hand, generates sounds by the manipulation and production of electric signals or waveforms.  Though it may finely imitate the sounds of other musical instruments, the synth is, in fact, an instrument in its own right.  One may look back musically, and do the same things with a different capability, or forward, to sounds, combinations, and ways of composing as yet to be discovered.

To paraphrase synthesizer designer Dr. Robert Moog, it is no less difficult to make good music than it has ever been.  

Forces of Art, and History

Music, like painting and the other arts generally, offers the artist a great deal of control over media.

Some mistake artistic control for refinement, but this is not always so.  To view Leonardo's Lady with an Ermine or a Van Gogh self-portrait elevates consciousness, though the artists' methods are completely dissimilar and at variance with each other in terms of control of execution.

The portrayals in stone and illustrations of the anonymous heroes of the Soviet era in the state-approved mode of "socialist realism" offer another view.  Demonstrating a subjection of art and artist to total control, these works reflect the stylized conformity of a vision of reality experienced through prison bars.  Affronts to the spirit, the productions represent absolute control at the expense of all else, and burden consciousness with oppressive implication.

Control of media, in any instance, suggests a force of will, in that the final work is a manifestation of the intent of the artist-- but it is through free expression that the arts, and musical arts particularly, are realized most fully and sustain their virtues over time.

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Pravomoci umění a historie

Hudba, jako je malování a další umění obecně, nabízí autor velkou kontrolu nad médii

Nějakou chybu, uměleckou kontrolu pro zušlechťování, ale to není vždy tak. Chcete-li zobrazit Leonardo Dáma s hranostajem, nebo Van Gogh autoportrét zvyšuje vědomí, i když metody umělců jsou zcela odlišné a v rozporu s ostatními, pokud jde o kontrolu provádění.

Zobrazení v kameni a ilustrací anonymní hrdiny sovětské éry ve státem uznaný způsob "socialistický realismus" nabízí jiný pohled. Prokázání podrobení umění a umělce úplnou kontrolu, tato díla odrážejí stylizované souladu vize reality zkušených přes vězeňské mříže. Urazí duchu, produkce představují absolutní kontrolu na úkor všeho ostatního, a zátěž vědomí tíživé důsledky.

Kontrolu nad médii, v každém případě naznačuje, silou vůle, v tom, že konečné dílo je projevem záměru autora - ale to je přes svobodu projevu, že umění a hudební umění, zvláště, jsou realizovány většinou v plném rozsahu a udržet jejich ctnosti v průběhu času.

Echoes Over Time

Music in contemporary life is virtually omnipresent. 

This has become possible over the last hundred and fifty years, during which time the process of recording sound evolved from initial concept to the high quality digital reproduction devices useful in everyday situations and easily available now.

In terms of recording sounds and music, this brings to mind the advent and development of the printing press. The technology is here, the medium everywhere, and culture and the human imagination define the future.

Higher

If the aims of music are more than the perpetuation of vanity and greed, the listener will know.

Art exists for reasons as old as human existence, and music, as an art form, invigorates the senses and the imagination.

It may be crass, exploitative, absurd, and pointless from time to time, but whatever its negative attributes, it can always be more than a sign of the times and a signal of despair and desperation. 

It can symbolize, through sound, our higher ideals and most uplifting desires.

It can, and does, illuminate past, present, and future.

Echoes

Some people go around with "songs in their heads", or say "I have this song stuck in my head".  Some music, though obviously not all, dominates the listener's attention, then is internalized.  One may judge for oneself the value of this.

Perhaps such events, which are not external yet give the impression of being auditory, impinge or intrude on consciousness, superimposing their presence and emotional connotations, and perhaps they diminish clarity of perception.  One is left to one's own assessment of such things; that they are real is undisputed.