Re: It just goes...

[Clifford Novey <clifsound@earthlink.net>]

Man, you are definitely going crazy!

No- kidding- actually you are blessed in noticing so many details in the
everyday things around you- sounds like a potential source of creative
inspiration!

Cliff

James Pokorny wrote:

> Stephan said:
>
> >I often notice (or maybe
> >just lapse into a particular state) that when in a "noisy" environment 
>such
> as a
> >crowded restaurant, an effort can be made to treat all of the various
> sounds
> >(snippets of conversations, clinks of glass and silverware, etc., at
> various
> >frequencies) in a detached or homogeneous way.  The result is a rather
> smooth
> >cacophony that rises and falls with bits of recognizable verbage coming
> >occasionlly to the surface.  It takes a little effort to treat all of 
>the
> sound
> >sources in such an environment as totally equal with no intrinsic 
>meaning
> in
> >terms of language, etc., but the result is a very interesting and 
>somewhat
> >exhilarating, "sound collage" experience.
> >
> >This is probably brought on by many years of intense listening to music 
>of
> >various sorts (including my own)
>
> I think we're getting back into the realm of "loop religion" here!  I've 
>had
> similar experiences where I tend to zone out by intensely concentrating 
>on
> and/or suddenly becoming aware of all the surrounding sounds.  I realize
> that this is recommended within Buddhism as an exercise in centering and
> focus.  I'm no student of Buddhism, but I always liked this idea, at 
>least
> in theory.  And I believe that this was the basis of John Cage's
> experimental "composition" called 4'33" (performer sits behind instrument
> and remains silent for 4 minutes and 33 seconds -- the point being that 
>all
> the ambient sounds of the hall [papers rustling, throats clearing, 
>overhead
> fans whirring, etc.] ARE the music.)
>
> But to be honest, I get a little frightened when I realize that I've been
> driving on an expressway at 75 mph with the windows down and enjoying the
> "musical content" of vehicles rushing by in the opposite lanes, horns
> honking, all the pings and buzzes that emanate from my dashboard, etc.  
>It
> makes me think -- OK, it's great that I can think of this as "music" -- 
>but
> I should be concentrating more on my driving!  I wouldn't want the
> performance to end with squealing brakes and crunching metal.
>
> A month or two ago I was walking down several flights of stairs in my
> building at work.  The steam pipes starting hissing and giving off a 
>fairly
> strident, screechy sound.  But then a second tone arose, quickly 
>followed by
> a third.  Despite the unpleasant texture of the hiss, the resulting chord
> was really quite lovely.  It made me wonder how often this sort of thing
> occurs.  I had the idea that I'd wind up sneaking away from my desk and
> spending hours loitering in the stairwell waiting for it to happen again.
> But common sense prevailed and I haven't started this practice.  Yet.
>
> A rather more pleasant experience occurred last week.  I woke up at about
> 4:30 in the morning because all the birds outside my window were waking 
>up
> (these birds are LOUD).  Usually when this happens I get angry since it's
> hard to get back to sleep for another hour until they calm down, which is
> when I'm getting up anyway.  But this one morning I sort of slowly 
>drifted
> into wakefulness, suddenly realizing that each different bird was singing
> it's own "looped" melodic pattern, which would come around again and 
>again.
> There must have been six or seven different species of birds, because 
>there
> was a real sense of order -- one "loop" running and interacting with
> another, some moments of silence, more "loops" entering, etc.  It was a 
>very
> full sound altogether, and also much more soothing than I'd ever thought
> possible.  I had always regarded the use of bird sounds in recorded 
>music as
> being extremely trite, but this was music enough in itself and didn't 
>need
> any human interaction (except for the listening).  I don't know that I 
>would
> ever have come to this realization if I hadn't been involved in looping.
>
> So I'm having somewhat of a dilemma here -- am I evolving as a listener 
>to
> the point where random sound can be as pleasant and meaningful as
> "structured" music, or am I just losing it big time?
>
> James