Aural Feeling

Engaged perception develops intimate awareness of sound.

One senses subtleties of form, intensity, proximity, emotional meaning, and in some cases, degrees of intention that sound may represent.

A woodpecker at work on a hollow tree.  A window opening.  Traffic of all kinds.  Conversation and laughter. Sudden silences.  The growing recognition of sounds in quiet places gradually filling the atmosphere, as happens when one acclimates to the darkling stillness of dawn and twilight.

Imagine and create these tones and colors:  give them reality, bring them into being.

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.  

Distance and Light

Artistic creativity requires a degree of freedom that goes beyond conformity of thought, particularly in terms of popular culture, academics, and politics-- these being exceptionally subject to rigid, narrow conventions.

To confuse the polar opposite of common opinion with this kind of freedom is error, one that does no more than burden the creative vision with chains no different than those perceived to bind the other.

The way of the artist is beyond the mundane, and closer, even so, to the unknown.

Wave to Mind

Sense impressions conducive to ordering or unifying states of consciousness, emotional outlook, and conditions of mind and being may be conveyed in tone language.

Through sound, the composer always directs the force of auditory imagery to make impressions upon the listener.  To create impressions of a direct yet transcendent nature intended to elevate consciousness, however, it is incumbent upon the designer to attend to the progress of the works as one would in ordering a landscape, garden or park.

The effects are meant to be reflective of  nature and the human perspective, and so experienced by the listener internally as well as in the surrounding ambient atmosphere.  

Into the Impossible

Innumerable sounds constantly moving in every direction simultaneously.

These are sounds in the wild, so to speak, and sound designs that are representative of such processes rely on the fabrication of aural images that suggest environments and atmospheres of this nature.

The total effect is one of neither order nor chaos, but of emergence and expansion.

Nothing Left Undone

The concept of effortless action is common to a number of philosophical perspectives.

This is not to say that the strenuous application of force is never necessary or desirable; rather, it is to make clear that volition and action must correspond to the nature of reality.  In the arts, such action determines the grace of composition and performance, elevates the self-assured above the self-conscious, and highlights the contrast between the way of the artist and that of the subjugation of art to any type of agenda.

Such action is a reflection of the lucidity of vision that recognizes and brings into being awareness only suggested by the appearances of things.  These are the workings of the inner ear and the eye of the imagination, given over to creative engagement and completeness of motion.

Potentiality

Speculation on ideas may lead to analysis, consideration, and contemplation of possibilities that are ultimately realized in concrete form.

Such forms of progress involve time and risk.  Theories may exist long before there are means to apply or prove them, and minor errors in reasoning can easily eradicate desired outcomes after prolonged efforts.

Consequently, it is advantageous to think in ways both artistic and scientific, balancing the rational and the imaginative, in order to make visions real. 

Frequency and Variation

Change appears.

Perceived, it is given consideration.  Compared, contrasted, it is measured against experience.

In the context of creative sound design, change emerges and evolves, undergoing transformation in innumerable ways.  In the course of a work, the elements of sound and their juxtapositions suggest experimentation with additional elements and exploration of their various aspects.

It is in this manner that the composer follows, rather than dictates, the progress and direction of the composition.

Gesture, Word, Tone II

Archetypal sounds are imbued with meanings recognized across all cultures and understood according to their universal associations.

All languages speak to the poetic essence of aural meaning.  These are the sounds of ceremony and ritual, triumph and whimsy, the awe-inspiring, the bittersweet, the fearful and the serene.

Drum, flute, gong, voice, stringed instrument, bell, shaker; through variation and combination these come to represent the essential elements of ideas and emotions in symbolic ways, as do verbal expressions.

And like love, honor, justice, sadness, threat, peace and all other symbolic meanings communicated via language, whether in casual, formal, popular, esoteric, spiritual or secular terms, a profound degree of meaning is conveyed in the form of tone-- immediately recognized, instantly and intensely understood.

Approach, Action

In the context of a tone poem or related piece, the composer may, in varying degrees, impose a vision upon a setting as well as absorb and reflect the atmosphere of that time and place in musical ways.

The finished work and its total effect will illustrate the extent to which the the composer speaks and the setting or event portrayed in the work is fully brought into being.

Sound and Imagination

Combinations and variations expand to effectively infinite degree.  Limits, if any exist, are not apparent.

Thus it is essential to recognize completeness.

Experience and Movement

Paints, sounds, words, clay and stone, gestures, tools and technologies.

Let the simple become difficult, the sophisticated grow childlike, the unadorned be lit and brightened, the complex coalesce into one form and meaning, and the subjective be overcome by the vastness of time and space.  In the creative act, let all these events come into being.

But, says one, I cannot envision and know the outcome of such an experience.

What is important is to know is that it is good, that the action has virtue, and when it is finished it is clearly so.

Arrangement of Elements

Compositions in sound involve control and disorder, flexibility and restraint, choice and chance.

Regarding listening and hearing as separate functions in terms of varying degrees of attention, one active and the other passive, and designing sound to accommodate the flux of these perceptions, musical elements may be organized according to principles of design.

Rather than focusing predominately upon manipulation of rhythm, melody, harmony, and percussion, qualities of balance, emphasis, subordination, movement, proportion, pattern, unity, dominance, variety, contrast, and spatial placement-- to cite notable aspects of artistic composition-- play a role in the choice and arrangement of elements in the production of transformation ambient music.

The composer, by direct and indirect influence, attends to the transformation of sound that is realized in the finished work.

Passages

Transformation ambient pieces of extended length offer the listener a perception of the movement of time that is harmonious with the slow unfolding of the sound design.

To observe this passage is to be aware of the pace of contemplative thought as opposed to that of the frenetic workplace or similar continuum of applied effort, social engagement and responsibility.

By design, these works direct the attention of the listener toward an internal state of mind as well as external atmosphere, and consciousness of naturally emerging temporal events in such a context contributes to the interest and aesthetic pleasure as well, making for an objectively different musical experience.

Out of the Fog

It is not music in the common sense, yet it is not far removed.

Music most often gains acceptance by popular acclaim, or in some cases through various processes that confer artistic status through institutional recognition or that of the popular media.

These are external scenarios, largely outside the control of the composer.  Things that are within the composer's control are the will to create, to perceive and analyze clearly, to be firm and disciplined in the conception and execution of works, and to act with honesty and integrity.

One may be called to roam far afield, and so it is.

Impression and the Real

Artistic works may be starkly superficial or imbued with creative insight.  Both are representations of reality and ways of approaching the phenomena of existence.

The shared impressions of observer, composer, and listener, for instance, will be those that correspond to their human experiences, particularly those of an intellectual and emotional nature.

Within the scope of these impressions the aesthetic sensibilities connect and unite in varying degrees around the musical work.

Every artistic form speaks through such language as brings these experiential forces together.

Crossing Horizons

Creation of those things that might be called possibilities may be realized in any media.

Poetry, for example, may be shaded with ambiguity, while every word is laden with potential.  In such ways is the mind brought through obscure terrains of meaning into clarity, and so to direct perception.

The way of art is action with aplomb, as opposed to interference, regardless of the medium of expression.

Transmission IV

Cultural cycles produce conditions in which art reflects various stages of conflict, resolution, and stasis.

While the progress of these cycles is apparent in the historical record, the aesthetic perspective of the individual artist remains unique, and may or may not speak to the issues such conflicts generate over the course of their existences.

Cultural forces are always dynamic, even as they give an impression of stability and quiet.  The way of the artist is to perceive, experience, reflect, create, and live the real and the possible.

Sound Over Time

What is generally accepted as music is informed by perception and culture, experience and effect.

The aesthetic grasp of "the beautiful" is internal and external in nature, defined in myriad ways, and most often associated with appeal to the senses, intellect, emotion and spirit.  As music and sound design are intimately conjoined with the element of time, so the listener's sense of the temporal world is at play as well.

To listen and hear contemplatively is to slow the pace of life, reflect upon experience, and enjoy subtleties and complexities of atmosphere and aural imagery, regardless of musical biases and preconceptions.

Conception and Action

The composer's art contributes to a singular attitude of mind toward sound and music, one which focuses inwardly with the intent of externalizing an artistic vision beyond that of subjective perception.

Such attitudes necessitate contemplative reflection and force of volition, involving flexibility of process, decisive activity, determination of limits, and vigorous work ethic.  The knowledgeable observer would call this neither passion nor drive, but a visceral detachment, understanding that the work and its effects are paramount to the artist, the associated consequences and rewards being insignificant.

The preeminent measure of success is that of the integrity of the work in its final form.