Quietude

The natural order of things reflects tranquility.

Just as naturally, cycles of intense activity, storms, and violence shatter the stillness, but afterwards, the clarity of the undisturbed flow of life returns.  Within this flow and these cycles lies the sense of musica universalis, for those who listen, and hear.

Boundaries, Distortions

Media constructs processes of continuous manipulation.

Perceptions may be altered, truth divided in terms of fact and plausible fictions, reason narrowed, subverted, or both, and attention drawn to presentations of spectacle that have no basis in reality.

But let us look beyond the sensational, the superficial, and the absurd.  There is far more to life, music, and art than these hollow appearances.

Crossing the Mind

Contemplation may be considered an art of observation and reflection, while meditation is generally practiced as immersion in the inner consciousness.

Both engage states of mind and being that transcend self-absorbed existence, attachments to material possessions and consumer culture.  In doing so they contribute to the development of spiritual values and refinement of perception.  Each elevates the intellect, enhances emotional moderation and fortifies sensory acuity.

For speculative music and sound art to complement these virtues, composer and listener will do well to envision and realize their forms accordingly.

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Fusion and Individuation

Experience is a continuum overflowing with words, imagery, and sounds.

The unconscious, in perceiving, adapting, and transforming, shapes the content of dreams and the faculty of imagination in myriad ways, contributing to realization of what Socrates and Plato called self-knowledge, and thus to illuminating reason and expression.

This leads to a quest for listener and composer alike, that of seeking the musica universalis, or "music of the spheres", outside the reach of the mediocre and the mad.

Heed, Harken

Attention, as a function of attitude, places value on specific things.

To see and hear contemplatively is to give attention to the fullness of experience.  The senses inform, but cannot value; this is a function of will.  Art may reflect and represent, but only the mind and spirit realize meaning.

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Realization Through Sound

Atmospheres created artificially range from the minimalistic to the extravagant.

But I am interested in speculative arrangements, and speculation involves genuine possibilities, not absurdities or fantasy settings. There is much more happening in the world perceived by the senses and the mind than it is always possible to apprehend.

Spirits of Place II

Sound environments reveal and establish tone, mood, and situation.

The composer's attitude may be apparent, but it is not of primary interest to the listener.  Nor should it be.  It is the set of conditions the listener experiences through sound that suggests the richness of the composition.

Ear, Brain, Sound, Being

Failure to experience and develop the contemplative spirit is, in point of fact, debilitating.

Contemplation and reflection nurture the imagination, clarify ideas and emotional states, reinforce analytic thought and strengthen independent will.

For music to lend its force to such essential conditions of consciousness, it must be composed and produced in ways that focus on the arrangement of those elements of sound that contribute most to immersive, atmospheric environments, within which the mind is as liberated as the physical body can be while dancing or engaged in athletic activity.

Dynamism

The shadow absorbs in stillness, the fire illuminates in motion.

Certainly there must be impetus to create.  But there must be vision and the application of reason, will, and force.

Murmur and Thunder

Observe simplicity expressed in ways grand and ethereal.

The greatest of things are of the most direct and uncomplicated clarity.

Appearances As They Are

Expression, ranging from the legitimate and real to the specious and fraudulent, makes and leaves impressions on the senses, mind, and emotions.

Just as judgement is false if not based upon facts, so the sound of the authentic experience must have a foundation in the genuine, that is to say, in viable settings or environments, rather than in contrived and spurious ones.

The Searching Ear

Stillness is external and internal, in the nature of living atmosphere and of being.

Observant, listening and hearing impressions great and minute, ordering and analyzing the mundane, the fantastic, and the curious: perceive surroundings, shades of meaning, and attitudes of mind.

Timeflow

What is heard:  the essentials for human functioning, then the media.

What is missed:  the subtle, the environmental, the aesthetically pleasing, the elevated, the uncanny; virtually anything outside the realm of the self-centered.

Fusion

In rich combinations of sound, separate elements sustain their distinctive qualities in relation to each other.

This occurs within the naturally developing atmosphere of any setting, without interference, according to probabilities and happenstance.  The composer, following this model, initiates a blending of tones, patterns, and the like, contributing such modifications as enhance the aesthetic properties of the work.

From my perspective, the less the designer intervenes, the more the "organic" atmospheric qualities of the ambient composition are enhanced.

Personal Culture

There exists what might be called a common narrative, that is to say, a culture of the events of the moment.

Within this cultural narrative are social, political and academic forces, influential in the development of arts and entertainments directed toward establishing and manipulating the public's, and especially the student's, ideas and attitudes.  This is the established milieu of various types of artists.

There also exists, outside these boundaries, an entire universe of experience and expression.

Fire and Frost

One may convey the infinite through understatement.

What can be seen and heard and understood are infinitesimally small in relation to the vastness of reality, and every expression captures but a moment's breath.

The Scent of Water

The most subtle of sounds enhances the most rarefied degrees of perceptivity.

The small things matter, revealing meaning, reviving memory, and elevating imagination.

Context, Meaning, Aural Impressions

Sonic images, like the visual, are symbolic of emotions, ideas, and the spiritual.

Properly understood, listening and hearing convey the vision of the composer, directly and through implication, to the experience of the listener.

Artificial Creativity

To dismiss the artist and deny tradition is the end of culture.

Advanced technology does not endow one with vision and imagination, but with ways and means, for individuality is indispensable, and works of greatness, the achievements of free will and moral reason, come from no other source, as history proves time and again.

Curiosity and Expression

Manipulated experimentally, sound imagery produces diverse results.

It is the artist who must determine aesthetic value in composition and design. Some experimental sounds will be no more than noise, while others yield the elevated and beautiful.

Simply put, one chooses accordingly.