And Xenakis rolls dice in the music universe. It's almost quantum,
like harrowing uncertainty of Heisenberg or fun with Feynman and 
his diagrams (a percussionist in his own right).

What fun.

-Partev


====================================================================

--- badmuthahubbard@gmail.com wrote:

From: Chuckk Hubbard 
To: csound@lists.bath.ac.uk
Subject: Re: [Csnd] Re: Xenakis
Date: Thu, 3 Feb 2011 18:50:00 +0200

I have a theory that all music reflects people's approaches towards
sex. And yes, it's a theory.

Rednecks do it fast and comically, standing up in the field, fully
clothed, and it's over in 2 minutes.
Urban youths repeat short snippets from old records over and over and
talk about how great they are.
Old people like music made by people wearing suits and smiling while
they sing. And Lawrence Welk.
Nirvana fans like it to permanently damage their throats.
Csound users will work at one piece for months, sometimes having to
deal with unexplained segmentation faults. It's also free as in beer.
For Cage, well, everything was music.

-Chuckk


On Tue, Feb 1, 2011 at 8:48 AM, Aaron Krister Johnson
 wrote:
>
> Cage's writings almost get more attention than his music. I must say,
> there's some good stuff in his output if you can do some cherry picking. I
> rather like his prepared piano pieces. They are very much like "miniature
> homespun gamelan" in flavor.
>
> I really do get a kick out of this video below. What ever you think of it,
> you have to admit that this man was _way_ ahead of his time in understanding
> the concept of listening deeply to things. I find the piece really engaging.
> It requires one to let go of a lot of left brain chatter about what
> music/sound "should be", though, which is a huge part of what Cage's
> contribution was, and I think in that regard, he certainly deserves his
> place in music history.
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSulycqZH-U
>
> AKJ
>
> On Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 4:05 PM, Chuckk Hubbard 
> wrote:
>>
>> On Wed, Jan 5, 2011 at 12:16 AM, Jim Aikin 
>> wrote:
>> > On 1/4/2011 1:47 PM, Stéphane Rollandin [via Csound] wrote:
>> >>
>> >> John Cage has a very nice way to expose a similar relation to sound and
>> >> music in his book "Silence". I remember he wrote that he had a hard
>> >> time
>> >> accepting the sound of its fridge, until he realized that it was the
>> >> like of a sonic sculpture, motionless. Then he could listen to the
>> >> fridge :)
>> >>
>> >> (and of course it's the whole point of 4'33, his silent piece: have the
>> >> audience listen to the actual sounds arising during the performance,
>> >> that have nothing to do with composition)
>> > Cage famously said, "I have nothing to say and I am saying it and that
>> > is music." Which is very Zen, of course, but not, in the end, a very
>> > useful credo for a composer.
>> >
>> > My response to Cage is this: "You have nothing to say, and therefore I
>> > am going to spend my time listening to someone who does have something
>> > to say, and is saying it."
>> >
>> > The point of my aphoristic response is quite precise: The composer who
>> > abandons any attempt to communicate with an audience has also, of
>> > necessity, abandoned any interest in whether the audience is going to
>> > bother to listen. You can't simultaneously fail to communicate and
>> > expect that you'll be listened to!
>>
>> Very interesting points, Jim. I take the same approach, especially
>> with Cage. I'm really genuinely glad other people find value in his
>> works, but I don't get much from them. Several professors told me he
>> was great because he forced people to ask themselves what is music,
>> what is art, etc. I say great, but I've never stopped asking myself
>> those things, and if I'll never manage to listen to everything, then
>> I'd rather listen to music that inspires me by engaging my senses, by
>> seducing me, by showing me what music is rather than asking me a
>> question I'm already asking myself.
>> But I am certain there are enough artists who worked mostly for their
>> own fulfillment and yet reached huge audiences with the beauty of
>> their work. Franz Kafka? Charles Ives, another one whose music I don't
>> get into so much, but whose ideas and works have had a great
>> influence, and who, from what I know, had relatively little to do with
>> a career in music. Emily Dickinson. Poe was definitely trying to
>> communicate, but he was also writing compulsively, for his own inner
>> reasons. I'm sure there are lots of examples I can't think of right
>> now. Very shy, isolated people who are simply fascinated by their
>> materials, and create things that fascinate others as well. I don't
>> know if I'd put Cage in this category. He's always struck me as
>> someone who really liked attention.
>>
>> -Chuckk
>>
>>
>> >
>> > If you're satisfied never to be listened to, then Cage's Zen-based
>> > philosophy is just dandy. If, however, you aspire to be listened to,
>> > then you had better start out by deciding that you have something to
>> > say, and then go about saying it with all the passion and precision you
>> > can muster.
>> >
>> > --JA
>> >
>> >
>> > ________________________________
>> > View this message in context: Re: Xenakis
>> > Sent from the Csound - General mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>> >
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> http://www.badmuthahubbard.com
>>
>>
>> Send bugs reports to the Sourceforge bug tracker
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>>
>
>
>
> --
> Aaron Krister Johnson
> http://www.akjmusic.com
> http://www.untwelve.org
>
>



-- 
http://www.badmuthahubbard.com


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