Comments on: What’s Music For? http://fabulousforager.com/2008/03/whats-music-for/ Feral fashions for the finicky female Fri, 03 Jul 2009 01:24:45 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 By: The place to be http://fabulousforager.com/2008/03/whats-music-for/#comment-1105 The place to be Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:31:40 +0000 http://fabulousforager.com/2008/03/whats-music-for/#comment-1105 <strong>kew site...</strong> Be sure to see mine...... kew site…

Be sure to see mine……

]]> By: Andrea Schamoz http://fabulousforager.com/2008/03/whats-music-for/#comment-1096 Andrea Schamoz Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:19:11 +0000 http://fabulousforager.com/2008/03/whats-music-for/#comment-1096 <strong>Kew site...</strong> Keep up the g00d work man!... Kew site…

Keep up the g00d work man!…

]]> By: Dano http://fabulousforager.com/2008/03/whats-music-for/#comment-1076 Dano Fri, 13 Mar 2009 18:38:31 +0000 http://fabulousforager.com/2008/03/whats-music-for/#comment-1076 Hey! Great article and site! Nice to find some people with similar philosophies. I'd like to mention something about recording studios... The best way to think about a recording studio is that it's essentially a big white clean canvas with all of the nicest brushes and paints to work with, to make a creation of pure thought, trying to minimize as much as possible any distortions brought upon by it's surroundings. It's not that they want to "hide the fact that they recorded in the city", They want it to seem like it was recorded in an eternal void that has what you need to materialize your idea: space. It's also similar to this blog post. Because you sat down and typed it all out on a big blank computer screen, you could format it, reread it, proof read it, spell-check it, maybe even have a friend take a look before you published it. Had you been discussing this topic around a fire with some friends, they would offer their opinions, giving you new insights, you may have gotten sidetracked and off topic, or the subject may have changed and you couldn't remember that one point you wanted to make. The point is, when you create "art", in a studio, on a big sheet of clean paper, or on a computer screen, you carefully plan and lay out what you want to say, exactly how you want to say it. Nobody can interrupt prepared art, because it's created before it's published, and it is static. Live art, drawing pictures using improvised materials in strange circumstances, having an impromptu jam session behind a convenience store on trash can lids with your mates, or philosophizing late at night with strangers at a bar is all live art, and it's all transactional. It gets left behind and isn't held on to. Live art flies away and that's why it's so great. Studio art is precise and that's why it's so great. While I do believe it is a crime that so many of us today don't participate in the artistic experience at all, it's hardly the fault of the artists or their "elitism". There is nobody stopping you all from getting up and dancing right now. Anyone who judges you and looks at you strangely will envy you deep down and only judges you because they are afraid they will be judged if they don't judge you. There is a big world right out in front of all of us, every day brings the potential for endless celebration and orgasmic ecstasy, but the people who are content to let American Idol and MTV do all of their LIVING for them will only stand up and sing when they feel they have the approval of their peers, and it's a shame that all of their peers are watching American Idol and MTV waiting for approval to get up and sing... Also, I really enjoyed the first quote about how music symbolically raises imbalance and then resolves it, I thought I would mention, when the imbalance is resolved, it brings a bit of pleasure, in the way of relief. The more intense and complicated the music, the more "far out" it goes, the better the eargasm of resolution is, which is why many people are absolutely brought to tears at some of the more intense moments, if you can and understand and follow what is happening musically, it's like the composer has razor-blade fingers twisting ever so slowly in your heart. That kind of sheer orgasmic/torturous intensity is rarely reached outside of professionally trained musicians, carefully executing a specific pre-defined arrangement (division of labor!). EXCEPT, when you are the one playing. When you are actively playing music, it doesn't matter if you are good or not, you can get to that ultimate level because you are so much more involved than just listening. I think the best approach to the issue of music would be to get all your friends together as often as you can. Can't play guitar? Well you can play tambourine! You can shout OOGA BOOGA really loud! Everyone can find SOMETHING that they can do. have everybody participate in a completely righteous jam session until they are tired, sweaty, and their hands hurt, then put on a DVD of your favorite band and ride those waves for a while... -dano Hey! Great article and site! Nice to find some people with similar philosophies.
I’d like to mention something about recording studios…
The best way to think about a recording studio is that it’s essentially a big white clean canvas with all of the nicest brushes and paints to work with, to make a creation of pure thought, trying to minimize as much as possible any distortions brought upon by it’s surroundings.
It’s not that they want to “hide the fact that they recorded in the city”, They want it to seem like it was recorded in an eternal void that has what you need to materialize your idea: space.
It’s also similar to this blog post.
Because you sat down and typed it all out on a big blank computer screen, you could format it, reread it, proof read it, spell-check it, maybe even have a friend take a look before you published it.
Had you been discussing this topic around a fire with some friends, they would offer their opinions, giving you new insights, you may have gotten sidetracked and off topic, or the subject may have changed and you couldn’t remember that one point you wanted to make.
The point is, when you create “art”, in a studio, on a big sheet of clean paper, or on a computer screen, you carefully plan and lay out what you want to say, exactly how you want to say it. Nobody can interrupt prepared art, because it’s created before it’s published, and it is static.
Live art, drawing pictures using improvised materials in strange circumstances, having an impromptu jam session behind a convenience store on trash can lids with your mates, or philosophizing late at night with strangers at a bar is all live art, and it’s all transactional.
It gets left behind and isn’t held on to. Live art flies away and that’s why it’s so great. Studio art is precise and that’s why it’s so great.
While I do believe it is a crime that so many of us today don’t participate in the artistic experience at all, it’s hardly the fault of the artists or their “elitism”. There is nobody stopping you all from getting up and dancing right now. Anyone who judges you and looks at you strangely will envy you deep down and only judges you because they are afraid they will be judged if they don’t judge you.
There is a big world right out in front of all of us, every day brings the potential for endless celebration and orgasmic ecstasy, but the people who are content to let American Idol and MTV do all of their LIVING for them will only stand up and sing when they feel they have the approval of their peers, and it’s a shame that all of their peers are watching American Idol and MTV waiting for approval to get up and sing…

Also, I really enjoyed the first quote about how music symbolically raises imbalance and then resolves it, I thought I would mention, when the imbalance is resolved, it brings a bit of pleasure, in the way of relief.
The more intense and complicated the music, the more “far out” it goes, the better the eargasm of resolution is, which is why many people are absolutely brought to tears at some of the more intense moments, if you can and understand and follow what is happening musically, it’s like the composer has razor-blade fingers twisting ever so slowly in your heart.

That kind of sheer orgasmic/torturous intensity is rarely reached outside of professionally trained musicians, carefully executing a specific pre-defined arrangement (division of labor!).

EXCEPT, when you are the one playing. When you are actively playing music, it doesn’t matter if you are good or not, you can get to that ultimate level because you are so much more involved than just listening.

I think the best approach to the issue of music would be to get all your friends together as often as you can. Can’t play guitar? Well you can play tambourine! You can shout OOGA BOOGA really loud! Everyone can find SOMETHING that they can do. have everybody participate in a completely righteous jam session until they are tired, sweaty, and their hands hurt, then put on a DVD of your favorite band and ride those waves for a while…

-dano

]]> By: How I learned to improvise - pt.6 « Rugged Indoorsman http://fabulousforager.com/2008/03/whats-music-for/#comment-1070 How I learned to improvise - pt.6 « Rugged Indoorsman Sun, 15 Feb 2009 22:57:30 +0000 http://fabulousforager.com/2008/03/whats-music-for/#comment-1070 [...] of the kind of form music-making might take in a healthy, life-affirming society. Back in ‘What’s Music For‘ Giuli Lamanna quotes from an illuminating passage in Siva Vaidhyanathan’s book, [...] […] of the kind of form music-making might take in a healthy, life-affirming society. Back in ‘What’s Music For‘ Giuli Lamanna quotes from an illuminating passage in Siva Vaidhyanathan’s book, […]

]]> By: Simon http://fabulousforager.com/2008/03/whats-music-for/#comment-1068 Simon Sun, 15 Feb 2009 00:16:02 +0000 http://fabulousforager.com/2008/03/whats-music-for/#comment-1068 "Music is not a product to consume, but an experience that brings people together, to participate in each other’s lives and in the world around us, a means of dwelling." that says it all. “Music is not a product to consume, but an experience that brings people together, to participate in each other’s lives and in the world around us, a means of dwelling.”

that says it all.

]]> By: How I learned to improvise - pt.4 « Rugged Indoorsman http://fabulousforager.com/2008/03/whats-music-for/#comment-1056 How I learned to improvise - pt.4 « Rugged Indoorsman Fri, 09 Jan 2009 17:18:26 +0000 http://fabulousforager.com/2008/03/whats-music-for/#comment-1056 [...] other half, Giuli brings us back to the present context with this brilliant post, ‘What’s Music For?‘: It all boils down, once again, to literality vs. orality. The literate concept of the song, [...] […] other half, Giuli brings us back to the present context with this brilliant post, ‘What’s Music For?‘: It all boils down, once again, to literality vs. orality. The literate concept of the song, […]

]]> By: vishal http://fabulousforager.com/2008/03/whats-music-for/#comment-919 vishal Fri, 13 Jun 2008 09:37:15 +0000 http://fabulousforager.com/2008/03/whats-music-for/#comment-919 How many of the above people who wrote comments plus the writer of the article itself - do not listen to recorded music at all ? Primitivism with electricity? :-) How many of the above people who wrote comments plus the writer of the article itself - do not listen to recorded music at all ?
Primitivism with electricity? :-)

]]> By: Django http://fabulousforager.com/2008/03/whats-music-for/#comment-797 Django Sun, 11 May 2008 02:04:50 +0000 http://fabulousforager.com/2008/03/whats-music-for/#comment-797 I play jazz music over in philadelphia in college and the excerpt you posted reminded me so much of the small combo setting of jazz music: rhythmic complexity and syncopation; (an odd time signature, or complex rythmic scheme) individual improvisation and stylization; (do I have to explain this?) call-and-response; (musicans will "trade fours" or play four bars and have another play respond for another four) engagement between individuals and the community at large; (the individual has it's own role that contributes to the form) commentary in the form of satire, parody, or boastful competition; (a sense of humorous playing or "battling") and a sense of group consciousness (nobody "conducts" a jazz combo. The bass player, pianist, drummer and horn player(s) all contribute to the time and structure, which is subject to changes, alterations and complete fucking overhauls during the course of a performance) I play jazz music over in philadelphia in college and the excerpt you posted reminded me so much of the small combo setting of jazz music:

rhythmic complexity and syncopation; (an odd time signature, or complex rythmic scheme)
individual improvisation and stylization; (do I have to explain this?)
call-and-response; (musicans will “trade fours” or play four bars and have another play respond for another four)
engagement between individuals and the community at large; (the individual has it’s own role that contributes to the form)
commentary in the form of satire, parody, or boastful competition; (a sense of humorous playing or “battling”)
and a sense of group consciousness (nobody “conducts” a jazz combo. The bass player, pianist, drummer and horn player(s) all contribute to the time and structure, which is subject to changes, alterations and complete fucking overhauls during the course of a performance)

]]> By: matt http://fabulousforager.com/2008/03/whats-music-for/#comment-788 matt Fri, 09 May 2008 01:48:48 +0000 http://fabulousforager.com/2008/03/whats-music-for/#comment-788 bjork once said something about minimalism (music - i suppose other contexts are appicaple too),something to the effect of it being "an artistic reaction to an increasingly complex world" and i've always liked that. bjork once said something about minimalism (music - i suppose other contexts are appicaple too),something to the effect of it being “an artistic reaction to an increasingly complex world” and i’ve always liked that.

]]> By: Fenriswolfr http://fabulousforager.com/2008/03/whats-music-for/#comment-648 Fenriswolfr Sun, 30 Mar 2008 01:56:07 +0000 http://fabulousforager.com/2008/03/whats-music-for/#comment-648 Ugh Jason! So hard when you hit all my favourites. Ugh Jason! So hard when you hit all my favourites.

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