new word used in context: I practice floccinaucinihilipilification at work daily.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floccinaucinihilipilification
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Monday, March 09, 2009
La!
Check out my new songs. Performed by Sequitur with Abigail Fischer, Mezzo-Soprano; Harold Meltzer, Narrator. Texts by Eevin Hartsough.
Maybe, maybe not, but certainly not certainly.
I'm in a class dealing with John Cage right now. Here's a question about indeterminacy that was posed to us along with a short answer of mine. Thoughts?
Q:What notions do the words “intentional” and “unintentional” inspire and to what extent do they apply practically?
With regard to musical composition, intention can be questioned often. Scores are mere directives about making music, not the music itself. Music is meant to be played and listened to, not simply read from the page. Thus, the music is only realized when a musician renders a version of it from the instructions on a sheet of music. A composer, therefore, must strive to communicate and intend musical consequences through the language of notation. And, although the written language of music has evolved greatly in just over five-hundred years of existence, its syntax grasps at multiple other languages for clarification – German, Italian, French, and English adjectives and directions, diagrams, drawings, and other graphic depictions meant to elicit emotional and interpretive responses from players. This is not to ignore the relatively specific notational conventions for pitch, rhythm, and relative articulations. It is notable that much of the notational system is made of subjective marks, open to a relatively wide range of interpretations – markings such as crecendo, decrecendo, forte, piano, multiples of f and p, etc. All of this is to say that there is only a certain amount of intention that a composer may hope to bring to fruition with any degree of certainty. There will always be a necessary element of interpretation and, perhaps, improvisation. Performance practice, tuning conventions, acoustical fads, and other narrowing factors play a large role in narrowing the scope of possible outcomes, but with a long view of music in mind, these factors are fleeting, and composers may never have full sway over their work unless they record it. In doing so, however, they might remove themselves from the artistic practice of composition, whereby the composer creates a more-or-less specific musical structure from which players may swing gracefully, or fall on their faces. There will always be unintended musical happenings with music as a performing art.
Q:What notions do the words “intentional” and “unintentional” inspire and to what extent do they apply practically?
With regard to musical composition, intention can be questioned often. Scores are mere directives about making music, not the music itself. Music is meant to be played and listened to, not simply read from the page. Thus, the music is only realized when a musician renders a version of it from the instructions on a sheet of music. A composer, therefore, must strive to communicate and intend musical consequences through the language of notation. And, although the written language of music has evolved greatly in just over five-hundred years of existence, its syntax grasps at multiple other languages for clarification – German, Italian, French, and English adjectives and directions, diagrams, drawings, and other graphic depictions meant to elicit emotional and interpretive responses from players. This is not to ignore the relatively specific notational conventions for pitch, rhythm, and relative articulations. It is notable that much of the notational system is made of subjective marks, open to a relatively wide range of interpretations – markings such as crecendo, decrecendo, forte, piano, multiples of f and p, etc. All of this is to say that there is only a certain amount of intention that a composer may hope to bring to fruition with any degree of certainty. There will always be a necessary element of interpretation and, perhaps, improvisation. Performance practice, tuning conventions, acoustical fads, and other narrowing factors play a large role in narrowing the scope of possible outcomes, but with a long view of music in mind, these factors are fleeting, and composers may never have full sway over their work unless they record it. In doing so, however, they might remove themselves from the artistic practice of composition, whereby the composer creates a more-or-less specific musical structure from which players may swing gracefully, or fall on their faces. There will always be unintended musical happenings with music as a performing art.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Ressurection
Ok, let's get this thing going again. Perhaps it's the spirit of the inauguration or maybe some intellectual wanderlust, but there's much to say and much to do these days.
Coming soon: audio blog! I'll be working on a project called 'Due Process' (perhaps hosted here, if I can link correctly...)
More posts, with content (and limited commentary) of material like this:
At the root of our current national dilemmas is an accepted lack of integrity. We are assaulted on all sides by corruption of such magnitude that it's hard to fathom. Almost everything and everyone seems to be for sale. Value is assessed solely in terms of dollars. Quality is sacrificed to commerce and truthful communication is supplanted by marketing. The type of gamesmanship that separates races, genders and ages by 'preferences' is a most cynical brand. The integrity and dedication shown by American artists throughout our history provides a most needed and unequivocal counter-statement. - Wynton Marsalis
Astute and awesome. Let's all get our houses in order.
Coming soon: audio blog! I'll be working on a project called 'Due Process' (perhaps hosted here, if I can link correctly...)
More posts, with content (and limited commentary) of material like this:
At the root of our current national dilemmas is an accepted lack of integrity. We are assaulted on all sides by corruption of such magnitude that it's hard to fathom. Almost everything and everyone seems to be for sale. Value is assessed solely in terms of dollars. Quality is sacrificed to commerce and truthful communication is supplanted by marketing. The type of gamesmanship that separates races, genders and ages by 'preferences' is a most cynical brand. The integrity and dedication shown by American artists throughout our history provides a most needed and unequivocal counter-statement. - Wynton Marsalis
Astute and awesome. Let's all get our houses in order.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
No, don't twitch and jitter at the same time. Twitter is an online update service that you can post to from the web or a mobile device. It's actually pretty fun, and if enough of your friends have it it's even more specific and amusing than FaceBook stalking (and less stalker-y too!)
www.twitter.com
check it out
www.twitter.com
check it out
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Get ready...
So I got a call a couple days ago from an undergrad friend who is the conductor of The String Orchestra of Brooklyn (The SOB.org - best acronym EVER) and now I'm going to be writing a piece for their spring concert. Watch out Brooklyn...
The conductor also has a pretty cool website and blog: Up Above Buildings
The conductor also has a pretty cool website and blog: Up Above Buildings
Sunday, September 09, 2007
... I don't care...
This is pretty awesome and captures the nuance of the hipster fairly accurately.
I miss Vassar a little when I see it too...
I miss Vassar a little when I see it too...
 clipped from youtube.com
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Monday, September 03, 2007
Welcome
Hello out there. I'm in here. I'm trying to make this blog thing happen again.
Hopefully with more success.
I hope to bring you, in the coming weeks/months:
Talks with composers
Thoughts about composers
Thoughts about the business of music
Thoughts from other people besides me about similar things
Discussions of pieces from the modern repertoire
Things that you write to me about, telling me to put them into a quasi-coherent blog post
OK? OK.
Here I go...
Hopefully with more success.
I hope to bring you, in the coming weeks/months:
Talks with composers
Thoughts about composers
Thoughts about the business of music
Thoughts from other people besides me about similar things
Discussions of pieces from the modern repertoire
Things that you write to me about, telling me to put them into a quasi-coherent blog post
OK? OK.
Here I go...
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