Portent of the Western City

[ted]

The concluding section of last night's recording. For decades I have wandered the streets of the same city in my dreams. Within the dreams I vividly recall my previous visits and know intimately its topography, inhabitants and ambiance of intense familiarity, although it is nothing like anywhere I have actually been. I really haven't the faintest idea what this ongoing visionary experience implies.

[quantum]

A vibrant city at that.  I envision the rhythm of the city's inhabitants as they go about their day, likely unaware of their contribution to the meta rhythms they create in concert.  The various shops to which you venture, with their distinct and sometimes surreal environs.  It is quite a vivid sound world which you have painted.  I hear the vastness of skyscrapers and the warmth of a coffee shop with live music.  If these things were in the dream you referenced, I have no clue. 

Very enjoyable.  I have listened several times and hear different imagery each time.  Thanks for sharing.

[ted]

Thanks for listening, Neil, your reactions are always valued. The city has diverse architecture but, curiously now that you mention it, no skyscrapers. I refrain from going into more detail about personal associations as I infinitely prefer the listener to allow his mind to run free and impose its own meanings. Your hearing and seeing different images upon each listening I view as a strong compliment; I would have it no other way.

[quantum]

One of my teachers used to comment about music in the piano repertoire: a mark of a great composition is that it lends itself to diverse approaches in interpretation.  I think you are taking a similar approach in encouraging the listener freely explore the sounds they hear, but more importantly, emphasizing that one does not have to hear the same way every time.

[ronde_des_sylphes]

This comes across as a diverse montage. It strikes me as quite an interesting manifestation of your comments about your stated relationship with conventional classical thinking and composition, because I'm not sure I find it particularly approachable from within that view and ultimately I found it more accessible if I stopped trying to consider it in such terms.

[ted]

Thanks for listening Andrew. When it comes to creating art you have to be yourself and no one else. Of course, the broader and deeper the knowledge of past modes of creation the better, I suppose, but only up to a point. I absorb them to the degree they are useful, but they never absorb me, put it that way. I still play and listen to heaps of common practice music, including my own from past decades, even if most of it has ceased to move me. Ragtime is the curious exception which has consistently given me a kick since I was a kid. I have no idea why, possibly because of my father's brilliant playing of it; memories of childhood run deep.

Is my chosen direction solipsistic, self-indulgent and lazy as some have asserted (mostly on the other forum) ? Yes to the first, because I view music as a mapping of the personal psyche onto abstract sound. No to the second because of the colossal amounts of time, thought and hard work involved. The physical aspect alone takes it out of me, especially since the dystonic problem and I expend a great deal of concentrated thought on developing new meta-level generators. As to the third, I cannot see how recording almost six hundred hours in a few years can possibly imply laziness.

Anyway, there is the free improviser's apology. Thanks again for your comments. 

[ronde_des_sylphes]

Is my chosen direction solipsistic, self-indulgent and lazy as some have asserted (mostly on the other forum) ? Yes to the first, because I view music as a mapping of the personal psyche onto abstract sound. No to the second because of the colossal amounts of time, thought and hard work involved. The physical aspect alone takes it out of me, especially since the dystonic problem and I expend a great deal of concentrated thought on developing new meta-level generators. As to the third, I cannot see how recording almost six hundred hours in a few years can possibly imply laziness.

Anyway, there is the free improviser's apology. Thanks again for your comments.

I think it's a dangerous route to go down for anyone connected to the performing arts to describe someone else's work as "self-indulgent". In truth, it's obviously meant as an insult, but if parts of the art form are specifically creative rather than recreative, then perhaps they *should* be self-indulgent.

[ted]

...if parts of the art form are specifically creative rather than recreative, then perhaps they *should* be self-indulgent.

Yes, I agree with that. I fail to see how the deepest core of an artist's impulse can itself be negative. Certainly, the results might depict or be driven by negative influences. Art has to embrace the whole psyche and not all of our experiences are jolly. However, the act of creation must surely, by its own nature, endeavour to lift the spirit above all the dross and grind life throws at us, and that cannot be fulfilled by a consciously negative and regimented approach. Well, that is my stance on it anyway.