[microsound] Re: Socio/political implications of microsound music?

[Gregory Taylor <gtaylor@xxxxxxxx>]

Since it's quite simple to have one's opinions take on a
proscriptive or normative cast whenever poltics is
involved [and since I find it annoying when I am the
recipient thereof], this is opinion only - and may be
a worthless comment to you.

My sense is that in situations where someone in a
position of power has a vested interest in obscuring
the difference between "different" and "bad" and an
equal interest in rendering anyone who *is* different
in ways that turn them from individuals into some kind
of cipher, bogeyman, or an "other," then the act of
engaging the senses in any way that shows you a
different world and does so in a way that the person
or persons who made the "different" thing are seen
as real people or individuals becomes a kind of
sociopolitical act.

I don't personally think that it's enough in such times
to merely be cranking out formalisms, myself; I
believe that the act of mediating difference certainly
involves listening, but takes place in a social setting
where real people are in contact with each other. If
that sounds like more work than merely cranking
out pieces, then I'd agree. But I also think that the
sociopolitical engagement, as such, need not be
propositional - merely personal. If there's any bad
news to holding that opinion, it might be that one
would be called upon to explain or make account
of one's perceptions and intentions and explain
to outsiders *why* one values something. I am
always a little chagrined to discover how tempting
it is to engage in the same kind of "of course this
is great, you idiot - can't you *hear* it?" that used
to so annoy me when adults foisted Mozart or
Goethe or Hiroshige or Oefs Mornay on me, but
there you have it.

 

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