Week 1 1/6/19

Extend moments of clarity.

The Art of Sound is not limited to expressing emotion.

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Arc of Idea and Action

Meaning implies continuity.

Left unresolved, chance and accident provide little in the way of significance.  

When intent and purpose impels action, freedom of will has profound influence in determining the outcome of events, regardless of the vicissitudes of circumstance. 

It should not be forgotten that this applies even to nuanced artistic gesture, as it contributes to the progress, and ultimately, to the total effect of finished works.

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Perspective Shift

Observe any environment carefully.

Detailed observation reveals that elements of the environment may be seen as both separate and unified forms.  With care, sounds may be composed and presented in ways that may be perceived in like manner, as opposed to methods utilizing the common aspects of musical composition and production.

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Artist and Medium

Control what is possible, let go what will be fulfilled beyond interference.

This is the virtue of gesture, the reward of practice, and the fruit of experience.

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Yet to Be

No one finds without searching.

Therefore, some things simply remain unknown.

Concealed Energies

Let there be no confusion: it is the artist who defines art.

Those who say otherwise have other agendas; those who allow their art to be defined by others may be many things, but they are not artists.  The likes of these are ubiquitous, found everywhere from print media to "web presences", all embraced by "endowment" managers, cultural nabobs, academic sycophants and political bureaucracies.

I, like other artists, define my terms.  All the rest exist in a miasma of glorified fraud and waste.

This, too, is what it means to listen, and hear: to discriminate between the real and the falsified.

The Sounds You Hear

I don't "make music" in the traditional sense, though I have done so previously, for decades, in fact.

Generally speaking, music involves forms, arrangements, harmonies, melodies, genres, and a host of sophisticated and technical concepts that define it as an art form.  Boston's Berklee College of Music comes to mind as a contemporary institution focused on these matters.

I am only interested in sounds as they are encountered in the course of events, and with developing their combinations in the way of an artist applying paint to canvasses that are continually in motion with tones and imagery.

To the Purpose

The art of listening clarifies perception.

I compose accordingly, engaged in producing this total effect. This is a means to listen, and hear.

Reality, Gesture, Object, Effect

Balance reason and the intuitive.

The creative act expresses synthesis of idea and media; it is in flux until it is complete.

Mystery in Reality

Partly recognizable, partly outside experience altogether: this is the experience of the uncanny.

The artist can, with effort and conceptual vision, create such experiences.  For the artist as composer, the elements of sound are at play.  I say sound, not music, for the simple fact that all the elements of music are so familiar as to be without effect.  Rhythm, melody, harmony, etc., are known quantities.  The nonlinear sounds of environments in situ hold meanings within tone, shading, and movement that are not so easily recognized and perceived.

These are my interests and goals, the sounds of reality, contemplated and aesthetically stylized as listening experiences beyond the temporal and mundane.

Spatial Perspective

Encounter and absorb real auditory information within real environments.

Turn this process, rather than those associated with musical arrangements, into an organizational prototype for composition of sound.  The result is a tangible atmosphere developing in flux as aural imagery surrounding the percipient, whether listener or composer.

Elementary

Tones create simple metaphors.

Combined, tones expand, in the manner of ideas expanding into concepts.

Atmospheres illuminate settings; settings contribute to perspectives; aesthetic pleasure and communication between composer and listener grows deeper, wider, and more elevated, ultimately altering perception and refining the art of listening.

Path and Power

Patterns occur spontaneously in the rise and fall of things as well as according to design.

Rather than follow the established patterns of music, create according to the unfolding of sounds as observed in the course of nature and human events.

Creative Impulse

Nothing is conceived of nothing.

Reality, culture and the evidence of the senses provide the raw materials necessary to engage and come to terms with life's mystery.  Grasped, manipulated, and combined, they emerge out of consciousness in new forms to the extent the mind and imagination allow.  This is the synthesis of idea and vision out of which emerges expression of every type, whether in the arts or the sciences.

All else is simply information, leading to nothing, in and of itself.  And nothing happens without imagination, inventiveness, innovation, and individuality.

Setting and Soul

Arrive at the understanding of balance.

Equilibrium and moderation clear the mind, enhance emotional well-being, and elevate the spirit. This sense of symmetry will be reflected in artistic representations that convey clarity of perception as well as aesthetic principles that lend completeness to the work, whether it be a visual or musical piece.

Atemporal Music

Out of radio and recording technology emerged the three to four minute popular song.

Even so, modern innovations in technology and musical artistry extended the length of recorded works, highlighting the subtleties of composition and expression evident, by the mid to late nineteen fifties, in albums such as Miles Davis' Kind Of Blue.

Now, for composer and listener, time is of far less consequence, and the aesthetic of creative listening anticipates sound works reflecting the nature of these profound changes in both audio recording and the experience of music.

Light, Tone, Shade, Shape

Set aside all conceptions and subjective ideas regarding music.

Sound environments may be developed in much the same ways as colors and shapes are advanced upon a canvas.

Advance

What appears spontaneous comes about as the result of innumerable forces and conditions.

As a composer, I am interested in gesture defined by environment, that is to say, by emerging and expanding elements of tone and setting.  This is designed as a transformational process marked by an equilibrium of sustained, evolving aural imagery.

Any choices in performance or production that may modify and augment the total effect of the work are subjective in that they reflect aesthetic sensibilities, yet their implementation is determined solely by the auditory elements of the work itself.  Interference with the unfolding expression is incompatible with its outcome.

Beyond Echo and Imprint

Imitation with variation is intrinsic to genre music, and the reconfiguration of common elements is a standard practice.  This is not because of lack of skill or imagination, but out of  a sense of stylistic conformity.

Ultimately, this continuing reworking of what some call "classic" elements diminishes their impact and their predictability becomes stale and boring to the astute listener, who is receptive to change.

These are the listeners for whom artistic gesture in sound design and engaged aesthetic sensibility in perception and expression represent the modern, and the drawing of the future into the present.

Essence

Reality and life unfold through processes of change.

In the course of everyday experience, one may observe causes and effects, predictable patterns, and linear forms.  Yet it is also clear that events and cycles of a larger, more profoundly powerful and less comprehensible order are in continuous flux.

As a composer I seek ways to express those latter, mysterious forces, with their uncanny beauty and grace.