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zen and the fluent music
Timothy Mungenast wrote:
"Another interesting letter, Kris. Although I love what I have heard of
your
stuff, your story reminds me of how many other people's pieces intrigued
me
with their written descriptions and interviews with their composers, but
when I heard the actual music, it did not resonate with me in the least.
(No, I'm not talking about anybody on the list, guys and gals!) There's a
lot of stuff that sounds good in theory only."
Yeah, I agree, Tim! I have to say that I love the things that John
Cage
wrote about and loved his use of chance in music. I have a first
edition,
signed copy of "Silence" and it is one of my heirlooms (though I don't
have
an heir........<weak smile>) but quite frankly, I actually
enjoy very little of his actual music. For some reason it just doesn't
float my boat. One of my favorite things he did was the piece for toy
piano
and it doesn't even use any randomness in it.
About how we think about music and it's process versus what the audience
'gets':
I liken it to a Shakespearian actor: The audience will judge a
performance of 'Hamlet' based on what they see the actor actually portray,
completely irregardless of what method the actor has chosen; what schools
of acting he/she has attended; whether he/she was happy, sad, fighting an
IRS audience, getting over food poisoning or what have you.
I think it is natural for musicians to want people to understand the hard
work and planning and investment that have gone into our music but I think
95% of all audiences not only don't get it: they don't really care.
At the same time when you buy a bagel and a cup of coffee from a young
worker in the morning
you probably don't think about how they had to eschew partying the night
before so they could set there alarm clock in time to take the bus to get
there to serve you. You just make a note of how they treat you, whether
they
are helpful or not and what the bagel and coffee taste like.
In a wierd way, I think we have to let go of our performances the second
they are put out there.
As someone just said if the reactions of people weren't important in live
looping then why would we go to the considerable effort to load the car,
drive to the venue, load in, sound check, eat dinner at a place we would
normally not eat at, do the gig, break down, load back into the car, drive
home and load the car back into the garage? Wow, I'm tired just
describing that process, lol.
portrays