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Re:lowercase on microsound - you got your peanut butter on my chocolate!



re:

>Sean Cooper <scooper@xxxxxxxx> asked:
>> what is lowercase? i've heard of the list, but what does it mean in
>musical/compositional terms?
>
>As coined by Steve Roden, "lowercase music" bears "...a certain sense of
>quiet and humility; it doesn't demand attention, it must be discovered. The
>work might imply one thing on the surface but contain other things beneath.
>It's the opposite of capital letters - loud things which draw attention to
>themselves. [Morton] Feldman is the perfect lower case music; it seems
>serene, but there is much going on beneath the quiet exterior."

>From: Joseph Siemion <jsiemion@xxxxxxxx>
>Subject: Re: [microsound] mp3.com submissions
>
>
>lowercase, i would say, is aesthetically the same thing
>as microsound.  its just a different term for the broad range
>of music that seems to defy other genre definitions, but has
>enough similar characteristics to lump together under the
>word
>
>lowercase or microsound.
>
>on the lowercasesound mp3 station there is a good explanation
>of it, which was taken directly from the lowercasesound compilation
>issued last year.

figured i should chime in here. when i used the term lower-case originally,
it wasn't to describe a kind of music as i was using it to describe my own
intentions and sensibilities as an artist (and a human being) - quiet,
humble, etc . of course, the work fits that term by the very nature of its
subtlety, but i wasn't at all attempting to create a kind of new catagory
of music for my own work, or to contextualise my work alongside others
whose works share a certain aesthetic - it was a description of intention
not a definition of style. it is interesting and of course, somewhat
gratifying to see that the term has taken on a life of its own, and that
there is now a term to kind of lump certain things together - the best
thing though is that the 'definition' has remained rather elusive, and that
even though we all have certain parameters that we think can help to
'define' what is or what isn't lower case or for that matter microsound, it
really is a meaningless term in this context. yet, it does enable us to get
together under a kind of tent of these two words and knowingly share our
common interests. i have read many times here or on lowercase where someone
asks is this or that lowercase? and it doesn't matter at all (does a
painting become a sculpture when it is displayed on a pedestal... who
cares?). what is interesting is all of the things that the terms lowercase
and microsound connotate when they are used to define or describe something
such as sound art or music. these connotations seem to be what we all share
in terms of an interest, not in terms of it being a defining term for what
we do or make.

steve

(p.s. pretty odd feeling to actually be quited....:-)

steve roden/in be tween noise
box 50261 pasadena california 91115-0261
usa
phone 626 403 9343
please note, we have no more fax.
e-mail:sroden@xxxxxxxxxxxx

"in the end, even this most prosperous and glamorous and complicated of
professions comes down to a thing that is very old and very simple; one
man's integrity against another's, one man's capacity as a working artist
against another's, the vision with which he establishes his standards and
the courage with which he sticks by them. the rest is trimming."
george nelson 1947
..


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