The sound of silence is the sound of nature, but the sound of nature is not silence. Silence will stretch on eternally while each sound no matter how long or short is only a micro-sound in the time scale of nature. Does this mean that it is pointless to produce a sound or that sound itself is unnatural? That is like asking is existence pointless or unnatural. Some will say yes to both, some will say yes to neither yet there are some who will argue both yes and no. It is an unanswerable question but all will agree that if something that exists infringes on something else’s existence then the infringer should be reigned in, but not destroyed. This can apply equally to sound as it can to existence.
The cacophony that is modern life infringes on existence. It infringes on nature’s silence because it is pointless. Modern life has become just another radio, tv, mobile phone ring tone in the middle of the street. It has become so cacophonous that people require these constant stimuli, but why? Why can people not sit back and listen to the sound of nature? The cacophony that is produced is, on the grand scheme of nature, pointless. What is wrong with a whispered conversation over a shouted one? A whispered conversation requires more attention but have people become so used to shouting that a whisper is inaudible? Whisper a person's name in a crowd of screaming people and you will be heard by that person, yet scream their name and you wont be. This I admit is a slight embellishment of the truth but it has a grain of truth in it. Someone will pick out the nuance of their whispered name in noise because they are attuned to the voice, the whisper and their name yet a shout would just blend in.
The world and all its noise is but a flash in the silence of nature. If we must interrupt it it should have a point, a well-defined reason for the interruption. Would you barge into a wedding, a funeral or a family sitting together eating in their own home without a reason? No, that is common courtesy. So why should we break the silence of nature unless it is with good reason? There is no need for ring tones as long as a phone as a vibrate function, there is no reason to shout at the person you are trying to talk to if everyone else is talking in a whisper.
The point of this short essay is not to preach but for me to lay down my own ideas, ideas that have changed massively over the last year. I originally wanted to write bold loud music but I have gradually been turning away from that and I think today I have come to see why. Silence is what will become and what has always been. We are a brief cacophonous noise in the midst of this silence. If I break this silence it is to create something, something that I find beautiful or pleasurable not harsh and bold but quite and delicate. This idea has not only become apparent in my dynamics but in my pitches, but in hindsight I feel that it has always been within my pitches. A move of a semi-tone makes me shudder yet a tone feels distant, I think it is my desire to create something that only just fractures the silence bleeding into my pitches but then maybe it is the other way round. Maybe it is the pitches bleeding into the silence. A note is nature and a semi-tone, or smaller, is nature but a third is artificial.
People expect the cacophony of the modern world. This expectation has bleed into music in all its forms. Electro-acoustic music takes sounds from this cacophony and re-interprets them, sometimes successfully but rarely, while main-stream music enforces in someone the desire to turn it up, listen to the drums and ignore the subtly. Would a semi-tone change of one note be noticed in a track by Lady Gaga, Stereophonics or Metallica? I think not. There is a place for this music but it is not at the forefront. The nature of these is full of volume but not full of thought. These voluminous sounds are not constrained to mainstream music but are also in many classical works. Again, there is a place for it in some cases, but not in all.
What I believe I am trying to show myself and any who care to read is that nature should not be broken. A sound should come from nothing and go to nothing; that is the natural order. A sound that is there for the sake of itself has no place in the world. Unfortunately modern life seems to be filled with these sounds. Is that music or just another radio?
Monday, 18 January 2010
Saturday, 16 January 2010
Concerts
Three months have gone by and not even one update, I feel ashamed of myself considering the amount that has happened.
October saw the continuation of rehearsals for the opera, there was quite a lot of stress and a few arguments that had to be calmed down but eventually it all worked well for the concert in November. Really happy with how Puddle Wonderful went and managed to get a, rather bad quality, recording of the last night which is up here. All four operas were well received, we didn't fill the place but I think there was about 300 came over the three nights. The week after that the second Queen's Composers' Concert happened. The hall was about 3/4 filled (which again I was really happy with). Afterwards I got quite a few emails congratulating me on the concert. Again the performance of Untitled went really well, though up until the last two rehearsals it wasn't quite coming together so I had to step in and flail my arms about in some kind of uniform pattern and tempo, this helped make it an excellent performance.
After this concert there was a rather large feeling of emptiness upon realising I had no planned performances planned. This swiftly changed when I joined, and was made secretary of, the Irish Composers Collective. Due to this group I now have a performance of Imagined Notes (22nd February) and of an as yet unwritten violin and cello duo on the 22nd of March both of which will be in the National Concert Hall in Dublin. Two days after the latter concert will be the third Queen's Composers' Concert, and the final one organised by me. For this concert I'm conducting The Space Within, a septet written last year for my final composition. It will be my last Composers' Concert because as of September I will be in Glasgow Collage of Music studying MMus in composition. Finally at some point within the next few months I'll be getting a performance of a soprano and guitar piece called Rain, with words by Edward Thomas, written for Becca Hopkins and Declan Keenan. Hopefully more concerts will come my way soon but I think thats a decent amount to be going on with. Though I'm starting to think of organising an ICC concert in Belfast before the end of the summer but that is still a very hazy idea.
I think thats a brief catchup of everything thats happened for anyone thats interested.
October saw the continuation of rehearsals for the opera, there was quite a lot of stress and a few arguments that had to be calmed down but eventually it all worked well for the concert in November. Really happy with how Puddle Wonderful went and managed to get a, rather bad quality, recording of the last night which is up here. All four operas were well received, we didn't fill the place but I think there was about 300 came over the three nights. The week after that the second Queen's Composers' Concert happened. The hall was about 3/4 filled (which again I was really happy with). Afterwards I got quite a few emails congratulating me on the concert. Again the performance of Untitled went really well, though up until the last two rehearsals it wasn't quite coming together so I had to step in and flail my arms about in some kind of uniform pattern and tempo, this helped make it an excellent performance.
After this concert there was a rather large feeling of emptiness upon realising I had no planned performances planned. This swiftly changed when I joined, and was made secretary of, the Irish Composers Collective. Due to this group I now have a performance of Imagined Notes (22nd February) and of an as yet unwritten violin and cello duo on the 22nd of March both of which will be in the National Concert Hall in Dublin. Two days after the latter concert will be the third Queen's Composers' Concert, and the final one organised by me. For this concert I'm conducting The Space Within, a septet written last year for my final composition. It will be my last Composers' Concert because as of September I will be in Glasgow Collage of Music studying MMus in composition. Finally at some point within the next few months I'll be getting a performance of a soprano and guitar piece called Rain, with words by Edward Thomas, written for Becca Hopkins and Declan Keenan. Hopefully more concerts will come my way soon but I think thats a decent amount to be going on with. Though I'm starting to think of organising an ICC concert in Belfast before the end of the summer but that is still a very hazy idea.
I think thats a brief catchup of everything thats happened for anyone thats interested.
Wednesday, 7 October 2009
Music for Musicians
My first blog in a while is more a musing on art and culture than a random babbling on what I have been doing. This was inspired by a conversation on twitter between @jamiebullock and myself from the question “contemporary classical music = university music?” from @laputean.
This is a topic that has concerned and worried me greatly over the past year or two. Is contemporary classical music simply producing music for musicians (a large number of whom don’t respect it anyway) or does it have a wider cultural place?
In the world we live in everything seems to need a price, seems to need an explicit benefit or educational advance but how does contemporary classical music fulfill this? It has nothing tangible to give other than a pleasurable experience, but because of the musical language used people without understanding or even without the desire to learn to appreciate the tonality manage to let this music pass them by. The price of art can be extortionate or less then the cost it was to produce. The rich will pay thousands for an original piece of art by a famous artist but many will squabble over paying £30 or less to attend a concert. When anyone goes to a concert of modern do they go with the tools to understand it or do they just go to say to their friends in a form of one-upmanship? Even those that go with the tools to understand the music still may not because surely the only person who understands the music is the composer. Anyone that listens will take something different or nothing at all away from a piece.
When Feldman rejected the audience in writing his 2nd string quartet (I believe it was the 2nd) he received the best reception of any of his pieces. Does this then mean that the audience wants to be rejected rather than pandered to? That is something I cannot decide the answer to. Maybe a composers thought process changes to when he thinks like this allowing his own experiences to filter in.
The composer is the only one who understands their own work whether accepting or rejecting the audience, though sometimes not even the composer understands. Music as an art that is there to broaden the mind and be the pot in which ideas coincide whether these ideas be it maths, physics, poetry, philosophy or even another piece of music or art. Every piece is the sum of experience of the composer. From this I feel music can be described as a condensed encyclopaedia or even a wiki where different people can add their spin on it but the essential meaning and experience of the composer is still there.
This was just thrown together tonight. Hopefully I will come back and revise it. I know it probably posses more questions than it answers but I felt the need to put this down and have no problem showing it to anyone that might be interested.
This is a topic that has concerned and worried me greatly over the past year or two. Is contemporary classical music simply producing music for musicians (a large number of whom don’t respect it anyway) or does it have a wider cultural place?
In the world we live in everything seems to need a price, seems to need an explicit benefit or educational advance but how does contemporary classical music fulfill this? It has nothing tangible to give other than a pleasurable experience, but because of the musical language used people without understanding or even without the desire to learn to appreciate the tonality manage to let this music pass them by. The price of art can be extortionate or less then the cost it was to produce. The rich will pay thousands for an original piece of art by a famous artist but many will squabble over paying £30 or less to attend a concert. When anyone goes to a concert of modern do they go with the tools to understand it or do they just go to say to their friends in a form of one-upmanship? Even those that go with the tools to understand the music still may not because surely the only person who understands the music is the composer. Anyone that listens will take something different or nothing at all away from a piece.
When Feldman rejected the audience in writing his 2nd string quartet (I believe it was the 2nd) he received the best reception of any of his pieces. Does this then mean that the audience wants to be rejected rather than pandered to? That is something I cannot decide the answer to. Maybe a composers thought process changes to when he thinks like this allowing his own experiences to filter in.
The composer is the only one who understands their own work whether accepting or rejecting the audience, though sometimes not even the composer understands. Music as an art that is there to broaden the mind and be the pot in which ideas coincide whether these ideas be it maths, physics, poetry, philosophy or even another piece of music or art. Every piece is the sum of experience of the composer. From this I feel music can be described as a condensed encyclopaedia or even a wiki where different people can add their spin on it but the essential meaning and experience of the composer is still there.
This was just thrown together tonight. Hopefully I will come back and revise it. I know it probably posses more questions than it answers but I felt the need to put this down and have no problem showing it to anyone that might be interested.
Wednesday, 19 August 2009
Home
It has been almost a month since my last blog. Since then I have been in Prague, Krakow, Budapest, Vienna, Rome, Geneva and Barcelona. I was planning to try and blog as I went around Europe but that didn't happen. Needless to say it was a really good trip and saw some amazing places. Even found a CD shop in Vienna that sold only classical music and another that was stocked with scores! I was like a kid in a sweet shop! Probably not that big a deal to anyone reading from a big city but Belfast doesn't have these kind of shops annoyingly. The classical section in HMV is rather pathetic and matchets, though great for exams, doesn't stock that much. Ach well, amazon helps. Finding the shop which had cds I wanted gave me the impetus to by them, finally got round to getting Chronochromie and a CD of Takemitsu's chamber music. First introduction to him and I'm hocked. Also went to the Picasso museum, Van Gogh museum and saw an exhibition of Turner's paintings, all amazing in real life.
Anyway, I have been home about just over a week and finally getting back into the swing of things. It took me almost a week to recover and catch up on sleep! The second Queen's Composers' Concert is pretty much organised, posters are being designed, music is being written, will be in the Queen's concert brochure and there should be a mention going up onto the CMC Ireland website soon about it. By the way its on the 25th November at 7.30pm in the Harty Room in Queen's Music Department and its free.
As for the opera its coming on quite nicely. About 1/3 of the way through it with about 3 weeks left to write it piles of time... I hope. I think reading 'Morton Feldman Says' has influenced it a little, or at least my ideas but I will reserve judgment until its finished. I think the dates for it are the 13th and 14th of November.
Just as a final note one of my friends, Daniel Barkley, has just put up his own site http://www.danielbarkleymusic.com/ . Have a look, hes doing continuing blog on how hes writing a Euphonium concerto which looks interesting.
Anyway, I have been home about just over a week and finally getting back into the swing of things. It took me almost a week to recover and catch up on sleep! The second Queen's Composers' Concert is pretty much organised, posters are being designed, music is being written, will be in the Queen's concert brochure and there should be a mention going up onto the CMC Ireland website soon about it. By the way its on the 25th November at 7.30pm in the Harty Room in Queen's Music Department and its free.
As for the opera its coming on quite nicely. About 1/3 of the way through it with about 3 weeks left to write it piles of time... I hope. I think reading 'Morton Feldman Says' has influenced it a little, or at least my ideas but I will reserve judgment until its finished. I think the dates for it are the 13th and 14th of November.
Just as a final note one of my friends, Daniel Barkley, has just put up his own site http://www.danielbarkleymusic.com/ . Have a look, hes doing continuing blog on how hes writing a Euphonium concerto which looks interesting.
Thursday, 23 July 2009
Berlin/Prague
We have decided there is a curse on leaving cities after more than a day. On the way to checking out in Berlin Laura decided it would be a good idea to fall over on her ankels while carring her bags. After which she couldn't carry herself, let alone her bags, so we had to carry her and her bags to the front door, get a taxi and then to the train station which thankfully had a wheelchair. Train journey to Prague was pretty good had individual rooms for 6 people. Was awkward getting down the train with bags to the room but it was good to have a bit of privacy for the 6 hour trip. Sat talking to some Sweds who were in my room, who tried to teach me some swedish (cant remember any of it now) but was good fun.
From the train station to the hostel was, yet again, interesting. Found a porter in the train station and put Laura on a baggage trolley before finding more taxis and taking out money to get said taxis. Took out 2000 koruny but wasn't sure weather that would buy me a bun or a car... Worked out it is about 40 pounds so wasn't to bad. Some of the prices here are about the same as at home but others are really cheap, a loaf of bread for 10 crowns (about 30p). The hostel I'm staying at is really good, Hostel Marabou. Its about 30mins walk from the centre of town but the best thing about it is the atmosphere. Really friendly, really homely and a constant stream of metal music played at most hours on the radio. Def going to come back to it again when I come back to Prague (which I will do).
Went on another free walking tour yesterday. This time gave a bit more because I had more spare change but still not as much as I would have paid for an equivilent tour. Again it was about 4 hours and gave about 800 years of Prague's history, admitidly very condensed and potted but still interesting. Also went on a ghost tour last night, was really cheesy and after the first story I thought it was a waste of money. Though after the 2nd one people in costume started to jump out. If it hadn't been for Lynn and Susie, both rather jumpy, it wouldn't have been that good. Even with them jumping it was ok, wouldn't go on it again and wouldn't advise anyone else to go on it. One of the others on the tour was an austrailian who was travling from aus, hong kong, round europe and back home for 3 months costing him about 35000 austrailian dollars (abotu 15000 pounds!). How he was able to afford it, had a traffic accident a few years ago and broke his back. He got 25000 compensation.
Back in the hostel I sat talking to some English people who were in a rally, to drive from London to Mongolia! It sounds really interesting, think I might look into it maybe for next summer.
Having a relaxing day in the hostel today before getting a night train to Krakow tonight though I really like Prague and this hostel so dont want to leave it. Ach well, can always come back.
Annoyingly haven't had a chance to write much music on the trains, might try and do some tonight while everyone is asleep. Seeing some of the places and modern art around the place is quite useful to get the brain going. If only Belfast had more galleries!
Think thats it for now, till next time.
From the train station to the hostel was, yet again, interesting. Found a porter in the train station and put Laura on a baggage trolley before finding more taxis and taking out money to get said taxis. Took out 2000 koruny but wasn't sure weather that would buy me a bun or a car... Worked out it is about 40 pounds so wasn't to bad. Some of the prices here are about the same as at home but others are really cheap, a loaf of bread for 10 crowns (about 30p). The hostel I'm staying at is really good, Hostel Marabou. Its about 30mins walk from the centre of town but the best thing about it is the atmosphere. Really friendly, really homely and a constant stream of metal music played at most hours on the radio. Def going to come back to it again when I come back to Prague (which I will do).
Went on another free walking tour yesterday. This time gave a bit more because I had more spare change but still not as much as I would have paid for an equivilent tour. Again it was about 4 hours and gave about 800 years of Prague's history, admitidly very condensed and potted but still interesting. Also went on a ghost tour last night, was really cheesy and after the first story I thought it was a waste of money. Though after the 2nd one people in costume started to jump out. If it hadn't been for Lynn and Susie, both rather jumpy, it wouldn't have been that good. Even with them jumping it was ok, wouldn't go on it again and wouldn't advise anyone else to go on it. One of the others on the tour was an austrailian who was travling from aus, hong kong, round europe and back home for 3 months costing him about 35000 austrailian dollars (abotu 15000 pounds!). How he was able to afford it, had a traffic accident a few years ago and broke his back. He got 25000 compensation.
Back in the hostel I sat talking to some English people who were in a rally, to drive from London to Mongolia! It sounds really interesting, think I might look into it maybe for next summer.
Having a relaxing day in the hostel today before getting a night train to Krakow tonight though I really like Prague and this hostel so dont want to leave it. Ach well, can always come back.
Annoyingly haven't had a chance to write much music on the trains, might try and do some tonight while everyone is asleep. Seeing some of the places and modern art around the place is quite useful to get the brain going. If only Belfast had more galleries!
Think thats it for now, till next time.
Saturday, 18 July 2009
Berlin
This will hopefully be a fuller update. In a hostel with free Internet and wireless so have borrowed my friends iPhone so there will prob be some typos.
Paris was pretty good though getting list at 2am is fun but tiring spent the day going round the place but not for any real perpuse. The louvre and the pompeasue centre were closed so just ended up lowing in the louvre gardens having lunch and going to muse Dorset, think that's the right spelling. Was a good mix of modern and older art. Also while walking around found a stall selling sheets of plainsong manuscript from the 1600s. If it's a fake it's a good one only problem is carrying it round for the next few weeks until I find a post office or get homeafter Paris went to Amsterdam.really nice city and quite interesting stuff. Headed to the van gogh museum and to Anne franks house. More I wanted to see but didn't have enough time. Definitly going back at some point. Now I'm sitting in a hostel in berlin after a 6hour train journy yesterday. Here for a few days so have a chance to relax and take our time rather than rush round everything like before. 1/4 the way through and been to 1/3 of the cities. Going really fast but still enjoying it. Lynn summed it up really well yesterday "you don't realise your have fun until you realise you realise your fed up".
Think that's about all for now possibly going to the body works exibition aoon and then onto a museum or two because they are open late. Wanted to go to be Berlin phil but they seems to be off for the summer, ach well. anyway till next time.
Paris was pretty good though getting list at 2am is fun but tiring spent the day going round the place but not for any real perpuse. The louvre and the pompeasue centre were closed so just ended up lowing in the louvre gardens having lunch and going to muse Dorset, think that's the right spelling. Was a good mix of modern and older art. Also while walking around found a stall selling sheets of plainsong manuscript from the 1600s. If it's a fake it's a good one only problem is carrying it round for the next few weeks until I find a post office or get homeafter Paris went to Amsterdam.really nice city and quite interesting stuff. Headed to the van gogh museum and to Anne franks house. More I wanted to see but didn't have enough time. Definitly going back at some point. Now I'm sitting in a hostel in berlin after a 6hour train journy yesterday. Here for a few days so have a chance to relax and take our time rather than rush round everything like before. 1/4 the way through and been to 1/3 of the cities. Going really fast but still enjoying it. Lynn summed it up really well yesterday "you don't realise your have fun until you realise you realise your fed up".
Think that's about all for now possibly going to the body works exibition aoon and then onto a museum or two because they are open late. Wanted to go to be Berlin phil but they seems to be off for the summer, ach well. anyway till next time.
Friday, 17 July 2009
Quick post
This is a very quick blog simply because I only have abotu 5 mins of internet left.
Sitting in a hostel in amsterdam after visiting paris and heading to berlin tonight. In paris we lost one of our group: he didnt want to puch onto the metro on the night of bastile (SP?) day and so got seperated form us. It took us the next few hours to find him. Then after finding him we thoguht it would be a good idea to see the eiffle tour at night causing us to spend an hour after trying to find a way back to the flat, we only jsut got hte last metro...the doors were beeping! Also in paris went to muse dorse (sp?) for the art and sat abotu the louvre gardens, it was closed on a tuesday annoyingly!
In amsterdam we all split up because of different interestes. Went to anne franks house, bigger than I expected, and then the Van Gogh museam. With that in mind for my own notes 'the outline of a piece. Nothing more. Just the basic compressed and stripped down'.
Anyway that is all I have time for I think. HEading to Berlin tonight to spend a few days and then onto prague. Possibly another update soon.
Sitting in a hostel in amsterdam after visiting paris and heading to berlin tonight. In paris we lost one of our group: he didnt want to puch onto the metro on the night of bastile (SP?) day and so got seperated form us. It took us the next few hours to find him. Then after finding him we thoguht it would be a good idea to see the eiffle tour at night causing us to spend an hour after trying to find a way back to the flat, we only jsut got hte last metro...the doors were beeping! Also in paris went to muse dorse (sp?) for the art and sat abotu the louvre gardens, it was closed on a tuesday annoyingly!
In amsterdam we all split up because of different interestes. Went to anne franks house, bigger than I expected, and then the Van Gogh museam. With that in mind for my own notes 'the outline of a piece. Nothing more. Just the basic compressed and stripped down'.
Anyway that is all I have time for I think. HEading to Berlin tonight to spend a few days and then onto prague. Possibly another update soon.
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