[microsound] Silence but Louder

[tasty radish <tastyradish@xxxxxxxxx>]

hi y'all. 

>why not go to a monastery or outdoors or stop the cd
and listen >to 
>something
>else ,like all the noise out of your window in nyc


cage himself said -- at one point -- that he prefers
listening to the sounds on the street then to music (i
am paraphrasing). 

we can extend this comment by the maestro (pun
intended), to a point that has to do with thinking
about what Music (usually) is and what Sound (usually)
is.  I think he is making a sorta spiritual gesture to
absolute openness of perception, that is in contrast
to Music.  Music, by and large, is a codified
organization of sounds - a sonourous template often,
usually connected to the ability to write it down and
re-perform from a text of notations (one of the
little-emphasized aspects of jazz is how much
performers work things out, that is to say, that while
improv is often pointed out as the essence of jazz,
one could pose a question as to how much improv isn't
based in many ways on rehearsed sections, riffs, etc.
which are in a way written down if only in one
performers memory).  Whereas sound -- out there -- all
around -- is ongoing, unpredictable, open, alive with
possibilities.  In other words, Sound is open to
chance in a way that Music is only up to a point (that
is, not really open).  I think this is worth pausing
on (I really don't aim to make some kind of good vs
bad opposition of Music vs. Sound).

>what answer is there?

why do we need answers (with a capital A)?  it seems
to me we 'need' good questions really... 
investigations, inquiries, deconstructions... 
Openings into new fields of possibilities, mustations,
hybrids, discoveries.  It seems to me that the quality
of exploration & struggling to work it on out (in the
music itself), has been perhaps the key fantastic
thing about  western music AND sound work since Ludwig
Von B, started slamming chords around.

>anarchist with no cause?

hey now! Anarchists like Emma Goldman and many
anarchists involved in the alter-globalization
movement of recent years have done important work. 
Check it out for yourself.  Nuff said.


>how many people actually sat and 
>listened intently to the cd for its 
>duration

the point is that you don't have to listen for one
second or the whole thing.  It is a platform or
framework for opening yourself to listening, to what
IS present or absent. Since no sound is coming from
speakers (by and large) you are then opened for that
time, or whatever time you want, to listen to sounds
around you, or even your own heartbeat.  It isn't
really a big deal. This can leave an effect, a lesson,
if you will, that there are sounds around us that we
don't usually listen to.  It is easy to
intellectualize this and dismiss it as dumb, but when
you really listen to all kinds of things they become
kinda amazing.  Plus, you are just in the moment. As
it is - changing and with chance events happening.

This is taking the idea of art into a new role. That
of a platform to open up possibilities.  There does
not need to be a content delivered in the sense that
Art is usually associated with.  There is no
spectacle, or surface/depth or beauty for one to
digest or enjoy or think about in the way that an
art-object usually is expected to function for us. 
This is different from what we have been socialized to
expect from Art, yes.  But it is really not so
different from how art is important in the social
fabric before it became Art (with its penchant for
objects of delight/profoundness). 

I would suggest a question.  Now, some 40 or so years
after Cage's 1st performance of Silence... How does
this different use of the art space work today? 

I don't think there is one answer.. I am actually more
interested myself in people's experiences with this...



- andrew







	
		
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