Impression and Force

The arts always stand firm in the face of banality.  The contrast between the two is clear and real.

Distraction does not elevate; diversion does not last.  Meaning and beauty always endure, regardless of time, place, and medium.

Circumference, Expanse

Awareness of limits contributes to the efficacy of processes, including those involved in musical composition.

To oppose, overcome, deconstruct, or disregard limits is not the same as conceptualizing different limits altogether, and acting accordingly.

Contexts and Contents

Convert impressions of environmental sound elements into elements of composition.

Every setting is different and produces unique effects.  The sonic events produced in diverse settings, and those produced in the same settings on different occasions, offer practically infinite impressions that may contribute to any number of atmospheric compositions.

Deep Distances

Composition with sound can often be an exploration carried forward by forces of memory.

To "paint" with tones, lines, and placement of sounds evokes impressions that can be traced to their origins and projected toward unknown outcomes, neither to necessarily fail nor thrive, but to collapse or expand, supported not by rhythm, melody, harmony or meter, but by the impetus of vibrations and combinations that extend and diversify as they develop.

Spaces and Sources

Self-expression is many times of secondary importance in the arts.

Fundamentally, it is the communication of reality that, for some, demands representation. There is no room for the personal, or the spirit of the times, or critical debate.

The ideas and emotional perspective of the artist must be subsumed into the totality of the work.

Spectrum of Echoes

Events leave impressions.

These images of imagination, experiences, and sounds form the composer's palette.

Total Effect

Experience time present in the sounds of the surroundings.

While the sounds of such atmospheric events are not typically considered musical, they may be given form in artistic and aesthetically pleasing ways that anyone may enjoy.

The goals of these compositions are to enhance contemplative thought, lucid mental images, concentration, and composed reflections upon feelings.

Axis, Whorl, Atmosphere

The listener is at the center.

The spectacle is staged:  lights and visuals of every kind intensify the sound performance.  Like video, it exists for the eyes, not the ears, yet it completes the circuit of attention, as do sound designs for films that augment action and emotional scenarios with fitting music and effects.

Outside the spectacle, the listener is free to do other things and to move about, engaging in both passive hearing as well as active listening: auditory perceptions are altered accordingly by these movements.  Musical ambience may be composed and recorded for such contexts, to be enjoyed and engaged in such a manner.

Fullness of experience is far greater than anything mere spectacle can provide.

Close, Distant, Indeterminate

Musical variety exists within a frame of reference generally defined by cultural and personal taste.

Move past those boundaries and beyond their time and place altogether.  Listen for the beautiful, determine what makes it so, and create ways to bring it into being.

Engagement, Structured and Non-linear

Consider the shapes and intensities of sound waves along with the position of the percipient within the sonic field.

The perceptions of the stationary listener differ from those of the mobile one, for whom the totality of the listening experience undergoes change with movement.

The majority of musical performances and recordings are designed in terms of arrangements of direct, focused listening, including the free-flowing area of the dance floor.

Consider, conversely, recordings designed for the mobile listener, and sound performances structured for the mobility of both listeners and sound sources.

Sounds, Presences

Day to day reality presents the listener and observer with a practically infinite number of sound events, yet most of them go unnoticed.

These are raw materials, from which beauty and meaning can be seized and expressed through stylized, artistic forms, reflecting the ways they occur and are perceived in natural and cultural environments.

Art Music

Definitions are indifferent things.

Experience of art is its meaning.

The Specious and the Authentic

Immured in the conventional, the sensational, the effortless and the obvious, one may fail to discern the bold as well as the sublime.

It is a grievous error to mistake ideology for education and wisdom.  Likewise, artistic representations may evoke perspectives of reality, but do not suspend facts.  One listens, one hears; yet perceptions are only as reliable as consciousness is unburdened by bias and cultural constraints.

As artist and observer, composer and listener engage, so do they imagine, reflecting the rise and fall of all things.

Permeation

A sealed system inevitably decays.

Narrow the idea of music to variation within stylistic boundaries and there is no growth or change.

Expand, then, all aesthetically pleasing sounds onto the sonic canvas, unburdened by expectations.

Media, Perception, Existence

Representations of experience and experiential reality engage listener and observer.

One may contemplate and interact, but even so, both ways of engagement suggest transcendence.

There is always the possibility of experiencing, and communicating, what is not yet seen, or heard, or known.

Thought, Action, Direction, Reality

Simply put, what lies beyond the horizon comes to light in the imagination.

Erase distinctions between intellectual, artistic, and social perspectives in ways that set the tone for individual creativity in the cultural times to come.

One may quickly comprehend possibilities for the good that are real, but as yet unseen, and act upon their inspiration with courage and confidence.

Listen Forward

Imagination foresees.

Within the territory of the mind's eye, listen as well, and hear with the inner ear.

Perspective, Mirror, Impression

Consider sounds as they occur naturally, without manipulation or interference.

What is perceived as aesthetic beauty in such conditions may be renewed and expressed in artistic contexts. As stylized reflections of sound unburdened by musical connotations, such works, by their presence and effects, possess unique and subtle charms, bidding the artist to disappear and to allow the listening experience to unfold.

A Walk at Twilight

Sounds may express the gamut of human emotions, but they can express more.

Tones, lines, and juxtapositions of sonic elements are capable of suggesting metaphoric experiences of events, objects, actions and ideas.  It is possible to evoke the spiritual and the uncanny, as well as the temporal and mundane.

Effects and Reflections

Social environments engage ideas and actions according to multiple dynamics of communication.

One who gains insights into the arts becomes aware of the impact of culture upon the individual and collective consciousness; this fortifies discernment of the value, meaning, and intent behind cultural phenomena, and contributes to conscious cultivation of the personal sensibilities.

For listener and composer, this means mutual engagement of sound and imagination, unburdened by false or contrived appearances of style and manners.