Guillaume Grenier wrote:
quoted 6 lines Autechre's music is tracing out stories of how to live in such a world
> > Autechre's music is tracing out stories of how to live in such a world
> > and deal with such experiences. Beethoven's is not.
>
> 1. It's the second time you refer to music as something that instructs us on
> "how to live" and "deal with experiences". I must admit this intrigues me a
> bit... I wonder how the music would do such things...
Check out the quote from Boy's Own fanzine I sent in my other email...
I think of it like this: music provides us with new concepts and ideas with
which to think about things. The experience of performing/listening music also
has a lot of social meaning, I think -- it has been argued, for example, that
live music events model and affirm the social relationships which their
audiences hold important. (From this point of view an orchestra concert might be
held to exemplify authoritarian elitism, a social ritual of the ruling class,
but that's another topic...)
It is important to realize that these concepts don't have to be verbal -- in
fact, in this way I think that music provides us with ways to understand our
world that language is incapable of comprehending, this is perhaps one of the
reasons that people value music so much.
To be more specific, just for one example, it has been argued that the FX and
transformations possible in digital music allow us to create the sonic images of
new imaginary spaces which have never existed in reality, perhaps presaging the
kind of mental adjustments we will need to function effectively in future
virtual reality environments. Analogies could be drawn to the digitization of
biology (the Human Genome Project) and physical reality itself (nanotechnology).
A good book on this future musical reality tangent is More Brilliant Than The
Sun by UK music critic Kodwo Eshun, he covers what he calls 'Afro-futurist'
music from Sun Ra through Miles Davis, George Clinton, Grandmaster Flash, Goldie
and beyond.
quoted 2 lines 2. OK, now a reminder: we're trying to establish objectively how Autechre's
> 2. OK, now a reminder: we're trying to establish objectively how Autechre's
> music is more relevant to today's listeners than Beethoven's.
That's not what I was trying to do...I don't think it is possible to establish
things like that 'objectively'. All I can do is tell you who I am and how it
sounds to me...if my interpretation has no resonance with you that's OK too.
quoted 5 lines I don't think that "Autechre's music is tracing out stories of how to live
> I don't think that "Autechre's music is tracing out stories of how to live
> in such a world and deal with such experiences. Beethoven's is not." is an
> irrefutable proof of Autechre's music's contemporary relevance. I'd say it's
> a characterization of how Autechre's music has a deeper impact on John von
> Seggern than Beethoven's.
I'm happy with that.
--
John von Seggern
DJ/producer
Digital Cutup Lounge
Hong Kong
http://www.digitalcutuplounge.com
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