Re: creative isolation

[jspeer@haverford.edu]

>As time wears on I become increasingly cynical about this, perhaps
>agreeing with Brian Eno that there is *no way* to be freed of one's
>influences, and thus the task at hand is not to find your own "pure
>voice"


jj,

I agree that it's simply not possible to be act as if you have never heard
anything before.  There are way too many assumptions that we've inherrited
from previous musicians, whether we are conscious of them or not, from the
establishment of equal temperament in the 17th century, to sonata form, to
far more minute aquisitions of pitch and rhythm by public consciousness.

Actually if you think about it, influences provide a necessary context by
which you music will be heard.  Even if you do the impossible and generate
an entirely influence-less composition (perhaps you could simulate one
randomly on a computer) your audience *is* likely to have heard other
peices before, and will assign your piece a context you did not intend. 
This is very important.

The best you could hope for is to attempt *full* awareness of your
influences, to the extent that this is possible, in order to act against
what you identify as your personal tendancies.

Jim