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Re: [microsound] Re: Expectation in music
Although I agree that just because there is theory or some kind of
concept behind a work doesn't make a piece any more likeable, I must say
that the bottom line is (like Pimmon's comment) it's all a matter of
taste. I can go deeper and say it's a matter of vibration and how one
resonates with certain vibrations emitting from a piece, but I won't
elaborate. My apologies if I tend to cut through all the opinions,
speculations, etc and try to get to the boring bottom line. I must also
say and reiterate that it IS possible to listen to music without
expections. I agree that one can have expections and still be open to
music but to be LESS disappointed with MORE music, it helps to turn our
personal criterion "off" more often. (no apologies for the caps) ;-)
On Sat, 16 Sep 2000 00:35:04 -0700 sroden@xxxxxxxxxxxx (steve roden)
writes:
> 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.
Follow nature! Follow nature! As she works, so will I work!
http://overheard.homestead.com/lloyd.html
http://overheard.homestead.com.daslzentread.html
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