Conquest of Cold
26/02/13 18:21
The music I contemplate most, of course, is my own, during the process of composing. Since I have a premiere coming up next week of a piece that is deeply involved with contemplation on a conceptual level, let me devote a bit of space to it.
In the new brass quintet, commissioned and to be premiered on March 6 by the Redline Brass Quintet, I decided to go for an arrival that is the opposite of what is expected in Western classical music, an area of extraordinarily low kinetic energy. The decision had a technical stimulus, in fact, which was my desire to use the harmon mute as a careful filter of the brass sound. I pondered this desire, imagining placing the sound in the spot of the “great arrival” and how that would affect the overall shape.
From the outset, a central premise I worked with was that such an area of low energy would correspond to an experience of extreme mental clarity during meditation. Since I always name my ideas, I may as well admit that I called this the experience of pure consciousness. One possibility I considered was that some kind of stress-producing, anomalous event early in the piece would get one reaction, and after the experience of pure consciousness, it would get a different, transformed reception in the imagined mind whose energies the music carries.
It's worth mentioning at this point that after thinking, contemplating, planning for quite a long time, the initial start proved frustrating and difficult. An experience of Zen chanting provided the sound infusion I needed to start over from a place of inspiration. After that, the piece unfolded well.
Sketching ahead the possibilities for a gradual dissipation of kinetic energy, I laid out the energy states that the group would go through. As I got closer to the entry into pure consciousness, when no one really moves any more, and the magic of overtone interaction begins, I realized that I had encountered other conceptions of similar states of being. I read Absolute Zero and the Conquest of Cold by Tom Schachtman some years ago, and learned of the discoveries made as scientists were able to get closer and closer to absolute zero. These include superconductivity and the amazing superfluidity of helium when it is cooled to near absolute zero.
This strange behavior of the physical world seemed to provide a parallel to the effects on consciousness of not following thoughts, of just sitting, allowing what is to simply be there, almost as if the act of thinking is akin to the action of heated matter. Maybe that sense of connectedness to all things and beings which can emerge from calming the mind is more similar to the reduced molecular or atomic vibration which we call cold than we realize. For my purposes as a composer, it doesn't matter. All that matters is that the similarity gave me a sense of expansion, of discovery, and a title that resonates with the piece and my life.
The sense of connectedness that meditation brings leads to compassion, and compassion is indeed the Conquest of Cold on the interpersonal level. The quest for absolute zero led to the discovery of superconductivity, superfluidity. The practice of meditation leads to compassion, or the sense of superconnectedness to reality. What is, is.
What is in the music, is that action – articulation and movement of notes – virtually ceases. Only slowly evolving and interacting overtones emerging from harmon-filtered (muted) brass exist at that lowest ebb of kinetic energy. Yet the hope is that this will be the most magical place in the piece, a real high point of interest that will demonstrably transform the ensemble reaction to anomalous events.
A composer is often filled with hope...
In the new brass quintet, commissioned and to be premiered on March 6 by the Redline Brass Quintet, I decided to go for an arrival that is the opposite of what is expected in Western classical music, an area of extraordinarily low kinetic energy. The decision had a technical stimulus, in fact, which was my desire to use the harmon mute as a careful filter of the brass sound. I pondered this desire, imagining placing the sound in the spot of the “great arrival” and how that would affect the overall shape.
From the outset, a central premise I worked with was that such an area of low energy would correspond to an experience of extreme mental clarity during meditation. Since I always name my ideas, I may as well admit that I called this the experience of pure consciousness. One possibility I considered was that some kind of stress-producing, anomalous event early in the piece would get one reaction, and after the experience of pure consciousness, it would get a different, transformed reception in the imagined mind whose energies the music carries.
It's worth mentioning at this point that after thinking, contemplating, planning for quite a long time, the initial start proved frustrating and difficult. An experience of Zen chanting provided the sound infusion I needed to start over from a place of inspiration. After that, the piece unfolded well.
Sketching ahead the possibilities for a gradual dissipation of kinetic energy, I laid out the energy states that the group would go through. As I got closer to the entry into pure consciousness, when no one really moves any more, and the magic of overtone interaction begins, I realized that I had encountered other conceptions of similar states of being. I read Absolute Zero and the Conquest of Cold by Tom Schachtman some years ago, and learned of the discoveries made as scientists were able to get closer and closer to absolute zero. These include superconductivity and the amazing superfluidity of helium when it is cooled to near absolute zero.
This strange behavior of the physical world seemed to provide a parallel to the effects on consciousness of not following thoughts, of just sitting, allowing what is to simply be there, almost as if the act of thinking is akin to the action of heated matter. Maybe that sense of connectedness to all things and beings which can emerge from calming the mind is more similar to the reduced molecular or atomic vibration which we call cold than we realize. For my purposes as a composer, it doesn't matter. All that matters is that the similarity gave me a sense of expansion, of discovery, and a title that resonates with the piece and my life.
The sense of connectedness that meditation brings leads to compassion, and compassion is indeed the Conquest of Cold on the interpersonal level. The quest for absolute zero led to the discovery of superconductivity, superfluidity. The practice of meditation leads to compassion, or the sense of superconnectedness to reality. What is, is.
What is in the music, is that action – articulation and movement of notes – virtually ceases. Only slowly evolving and interacting overtones emerging from harmon-filtered (muted) brass exist at that lowest ebb of kinetic energy. Yet the hope is that this will be the most magical place in the piece, a real high point of interest that will demonstrably transform the ensemble reaction to anomalous events.
A composer is often filled with hope...
the obvious
28/01/13 11:52
We should not be afraid to start from the obvious. Failure to admit the obvious will lead to serious error. The remainder will unfold if we keep going back to the source, asking questions of it and ourselves. The beginning, then...
Music is first of all sound. This unifies everything. Timbre, sound: the basic expressive medium. Start there, unpack the ingredients, discover what is. No one aspect is superior, privileged to produce meaning. All aspects are dependent upon the others. They interact, they change according to their own nature, and are conditioned by the nature of the others.
Music is first of all sound. This unifies everything. Timbre, sound: the basic expressive medium. Start there, unpack the ingredients, discover what is. No one aspect is superior, privileged to produce meaning. All aspects are dependent upon the others. They interact, they change according to their own nature, and are conditioned by the nature of the others.
energy and popular music
16/12/12 07:53
The semester has come to a close, and I'm reflecting on the Contemplating Music class just ended. The number of student presentations dealing with non-classical music was remarkable, with a number of treatments of popular songs from the last 20 years. What is interesting is how useful the Sound-Energy Aggregate is in penetrating music that would yield little if analyzed by ordinary music theory procedures. Harmonic analysis of these pieces would get a predictable set of chords, the melodies aren't terribly complicated, and so forth. But such lack of complexity on one side of the equation leads, as we found, to very high-level and often quite subtle operations on the performance or production side. Vocal timbre, dynamics, pushing or pulling back on the beat, careful treatment of register, instruments incorporated: these things and more are deployed to keep the energy of a song gradually growing to deliver at just the right moment its main arrival. All of this underscores my conviction that any music which moves the seasoned listener is the result of a pretty high level of sophistication, and classical music has no exclusive claim to quality.
music theory and science
20/11/12 21:27
Recently, I got some feedback from a well-known music theorist regarding the theory I'm developing, the Sound-Energy Aggregate. He agrees with the premise, of energy contours of individual parameters (musical elements like harmony, register, dynamics, and so forth) combining to create an aggregate effect in the mind of the listener. He points out, though, that the primary difficulty of developing the concept as a full-blown theory is quantifying the interaction of parameters.
While this is a valid point, it raises a whole flurry of thoughts. First, on the affirmative side, it means that although relationships may be difficult to quantify in their interaction, it's a fully agreeable, easy recognition of the concept's reality: music is multi-dimensional. It would seem to be actually testable in the classic (unreal) isolation of parameters, asking a lot of people about energy change during examples, etc. And I'll admit that I'd actually like to do that if I found the right partners to work with.
But it does strike me as kind of odd, and a bit unnecessary, to insist that a theory of music be produced and tested using the ordinary set of scientific methods. I am currently reading Northrop's Logic of the Sciences and Humanities, which admits to many means of pursuing inquiry. Might it be possible to create a means of creating and testing hypotheses using contemplative methods? Is the phenomenological necessarily beyond the realm of true science?
While this is a valid point, it raises a whole flurry of thoughts. First, on the affirmative side, it means that although relationships may be difficult to quantify in their interaction, it's a fully agreeable, easy recognition of the concept's reality: music is multi-dimensional. It would seem to be actually testable in the classic (unreal) isolation of parameters, asking a lot of people about energy change during examples, etc. And I'll admit that I'd actually like to do that if I found the right partners to work with.
But it does strike me as kind of odd, and a bit unnecessary, to insist that a theory of music be produced and tested using the ordinary set of scientific methods. I am currently reading Northrop's Logic of the Sciences and Humanities, which admits to many means of pursuing inquiry. Might it be possible to create a means of creating and testing hypotheses using contemplative methods? Is the phenomenological necessarily beyond the realm of true science?
on composing
10/11/12 10:46
A brief thought or two on composing, because I simply must make an entry on 10/11/12!
I have gradually realized that my whole approach to composing would have to be described as contemplative. First, a teacher long ago recommended an incredible approach to the beginning stages of composing a piece. That involves simply collecting ideas over a period of time, not judging them, just writing them down as fully as possible, and then one day beginning to go back through them and see if they are still alive. If so, they grow. If not, they go to the back of the pack. He called it following the path of least resistance, a wise way to get something delicate underway!
Another part of my process is more wholly of my own origin. It involves filling my head with the things I would like to have happen, either in a piece long term or in a given day, and then lying down. If I fall asleep, fine. But what so frequently happens is that the ideas start to swirl around in my head when sleep approaches, and insights, connections, and realizations begin to emerge. I jump up, write them down, and am suddenly deeply enmeshed in composing! Nowadays I use meditation more often than napping, but either way is a potential non-judgmental entry point to what is a process filled with making little judgments!
I have gradually realized that my whole approach to composing would have to be described as contemplative. First, a teacher long ago recommended an incredible approach to the beginning stages of composing a piece. That involves simply collecting ideas over a period of time, not judging them, just writing them down as fully as possible, and then one day beginning to go back through them and see if they are still alive. If so, they grow. If not, they go to the back of the pack. He called it following the path of least resistance, a wise way to get something delicate underway!
Another part of my process is more wholly of my own origin. It involves filling my head with the things I would like to have happen, either in a piece long term or in a given day, and then lying down. If I fall asleep, fine. But what so frequently happens is that the ideas start to swirl around in my head when sleep approaches, and insights, connections, and realizations begin to emerge. I jump up, write them down, and am suddenly deeply enmeshed in composing! Nowadays I use meditation more often than napping, but either way is a potential non-judgmental entry point to what is a process filled with making little judgments!