[microsound] Re: the tool has become the message

[Renick Bell <the3rd2nd@xxxxxxxxx>]

> I agree, that often people are more interested with 'the sound' of
> their music than basic, down-to-earth songwriting and composition. You
> can add all the bells and whistles that you'd like, but without a
> solid framework, it's just a bunch of fluff. 

Oh... I don't mean to say that some compositional concept is more important
than the sound. In fact, I think (off this topic) that the surface of the work
is often more important than the concept underlying the piece. 

What I mean is that "the tool is the message" seems to say that the most
important feature of a piece is or ought to be the tools used to make it. It's
that idea that irritates me. Like I said before, it seems that some critics
make the tool the message. My point is that if the tool becomes the message of
the piece, then it has failed aesthetically (barring those few pieces in which
the artist deliberately intended for it to be so, most of which tend to be
uninteresting). A PD patch or piano sonata shouldn't be saying "I am PD, I am
PD, I am PD" or "These are my keys, these are my pedals." It should be more
"neato skittering beats," "crazy algorithmic noise," "drone," "random ordering
of pre-selected recordings of political speakers for surprising meaning
juxtapositions" or in the case of the piano "quick minor mf run," "dense atonal
chord blocks," "romantic moody atmosphere" etc.

A discussion of tools has its place (which can more efficiently achieve some
result, how to improve technique, and so on), but if the most outstanding
message of a piece is the tool, it's probably a bad piece or bad criticism on
the part of the writer.

Renick


Renick Bell
http://the3rd2nd.com


 
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