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From:
Mark Kolmar
To:
Ryan Richard Whitehead
Cc:
Nate Harrison [Digital Magician Inc] ,
Date:
Sun, 28 Sep 1997 14:19:26 -0500 (CDT)
Subject:
Re: (idm) [review] Bj\u00F8rk - Homogenic: FAR FROM THE ORIGINAL
Msg-Id:
<Pine.SOL.3.95.970928135555.19537C-100000@typhoon>
In-Reply-To:
<Pine.HPP.3.95.970926170230.24275A-100000@apollo0.Stanford.EDU>
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idm.9709.gz
On Fri, 26 Sep 1997, Ryan Richard Whitehead wrote:
quoted 4 lines ever stare at a blank page/canvas/sheet of tablature and feel overwhelmed?> ever stare at a blank page/canvas/sheet of tablature and feel overwhelmed? > Schoenburg did--he pushed tonality as far as he could, and when it broke > stopped composing for several years. he spit out short bursts, pieces > trying to self-organize into 'Music.'
The Schoenberg I like best are the very short freely-atonal pieces for piano. They are from the period you describe, when the old models for organization had fallen apart, and a new set of models hadn't been established.
quoted 3 lines how to motivate> how to motivate > beginning, ending? only as a struggle to put into form, to > mediate, to transmit through a medium, to map, a landform.
That was exactly the struggle. Once you ditch the old rules completely, you're on your own. That can be a problem for the listener. People have trouble enjoying a symphony sometimes because they don't understand sonata form (primary theme, secondary theme, variation/development, recap). People have trouble with hip-hop or Detroit/Berlin techno because the action is not where they expect it to be. Rhythm is a very powerful organizational foundation which can permit limitless possibilities on top of it.
quoted 3 lines limitlessness> limitlessness > is implacable--it contains no truth, permits everything, and is the > ultimater horror.
Not at all. You seem like you might be the type who insists that art will inevitably return to traditional forms because the avant-garde is a bunch of claptrap from which nobody can take any meaning. Communication and meaning are possible, and there is still room for that, but art is also developing beyond expression of truth and meaning, and into pure sight, sound, and substance. --Mark __ <http://www.xnet.com/~mkolmar/BurningRome> < MPEG & RA audio clips > m u s i c : w e b : s o u n d d e s i g n : h t m l : c g i : e t c "Put them who threaten possessions and power together with them who offend our tastes in sex and dope. Those who are touched, put them in asylums. Pack off old ones to senior communities, nursing homes. Children? Keep them prisoner. Babysitter as warden. School. 15 to 20 years, army afterward. Liberated, we live in prison. Know this, know that. Kill us before we die." -- John Cage