Re: microsound Digest 16 Sep 2000 06:24:23 -0000 Issue 163

[sroden@xxxxxxxxxxxx (steve roden)]

hello -
thought i'd drop in a few words regarding a few comments made :

>So once again we see that theory and practice are too far apart, which is
>probably the source of most of my music related complaints.

i would say this is quite true and quite an interesting and prevelant
situation at the moment - and to push it further - there is a kind of
pseudo academic attitude that seems to be pushing a lot of work in this
direction (i have a theory, therefore my work is good ) - i would tend to
further add that the balance between theory and practice is extremely out
of balance and that doesn't even consider the screwed up relationship
between theory, work practice, and ... ta da.. the actual finished product!
(which seems to be suffering the most) i would be curious to know what some
of you think about this. i for one see a proliferation of lifeless mediocre
cd's that depend upon their 'important' theory to give them any relevance -
problem is that they really suck to listen to. of course, this is a grand
and general statement, but i think a serious problem. i don't agree that a
good idea equals a good work, or worse, that i good idea excuses a lame
result.


>>I think we get disappointed with
>>an artist because we build expectations before listening to a work we
>>haven't heard before. When we listen without expections we tend to take a
>>piece on it's own terms and not our own.

this last sentence sounds nice and zen, but how can we listen to something
without expectations that we have purchased and placed into our cd players?
how can we not personalise the experience of listening? as artists how can
we not judge things on our own terms - honestly without expecting them to
be 'similar' to our own work - yet surely as serious in approach, and as
vulnerable and honest in the results. i can't say that i think a work is
bad because it has too much talking ( of course, my expectations would be
that it wouldn't have talking since i HATE talking through audio work
unless it is a book on tape, which i have never listened to) but i can say
that it destroy's the experience that i am looking for when i approach a
piece of music - it destroy's the abstraction and i seek abstraction in my
listening experience. I AM THE LISTENER (sorry for the caps :-) if we look
at it from duchamp's point of view (as well as my own), we know that the
listener is the one who determines whether or not a work works for him or
her on many levels - we are the final piece in the puzzle that make it art.
can any of us on this list judge things like styxx or men at work without
expectations? - probably not (i can hear you all smirking); can any of us
judge something by someone we have never heard before without seeing cover
art, song titles, names, etc. possibly - but not all of us with the same
results - everyone's ratio of good and bad is personal and based upon the
levels of our own meters. personally i think we get disappointed with the
work of someone we appreciate already because they surprise us - sometimes
it works out positively in the end, as we warm to the work later; and
sometimes it remains negatively because they have taken a turn down a road
we don't wish to travel - look at philip guston's late work (sorry to get
visual); i had a teacher who told me these paintings were delusions of an
old man - for me, they were a revelation. i don't really see how as artists
we can ever approach  work without the expectations that it will be
brilliant and life altering or at least simply worth spending an hour of
your life with. i am certainly of the belief that life is best experienced
as a completely open person - and that is when things can get quite
interesting (turn off the ugh! meter and you MIGHT find an interesting loop
beneath the surface of a beck song) - but i am talking about listening
specifically to the work of other people involved in some parallel activity
of making work in a similar world that you make - and here one can only
listen with honest ears. expectations don't necesarrily mean that you can't
be open, i think they are different.

well, that is my first post to the list. i hope you will not all be sorry i
am now here - if you are blame mr. chartier, he got me here :-) i'll be
gone for a few days making recordings in the mountains (no i will not talk
over them when or if i use them). but i will grab hold of any lines thrown
when i return. thanks for listening.

steve

steve roden/in be tween noise
box 50261 pasadena california 91115-0261
usa
phone 626 403 9343
fax 626 403 6596
e-mail:sroden@xxxxxxxxxxxx

"the eyes transmit thoughts, therefore i shut them from time to time in
order to stop having to think"
robert walser
..