Thursday, October 27, 2005
Be a string, water, to my guitar
I just saw eighth blackbird. Until tonight, a big part of me thought that contemporary music was a lost cause, and that true innovation was impossible anymore. This was making my life as a composer somewhat pointless and stupid. But wow. I walked away from this concert with a severe dent in my concept of music, indeed art itself.
I'd already shedded the notion that "classical" music is inherently different than all other types of music. I'd always suspected that there's a magical aesthetic thread that connects all art forms. But what I'm starting to think now is that all art forms are just the same, and that any differences between them are mere formalities of realization.
As I watched eighth blackbird play Tied Shifts (2004) by Derek Bermel, I was pretty shocked by how they were playing it: having memorized the music, the players meandered around the stage, grouping, entering, exiting, conversing, basically "acting out" the music on the stage as they played it. And then it struck me that it's ridiculous that this could have rattled me so much... I've been to rock concerts, ballets, plays, sporting events, and here it's revolutionary that classical players can do something on stage besides sit in chairs and scowl into their music stands? If music is drama, can't it be theatre as well?
Can't any art form be any art form?
My head is spinning! I know, it doesn't take much to freak out fans of classical music, does it?
(From EB's website I learned that the group "especially loves Iowa." Why they do I couldn't begin to imagine.)
I'd already shedded the notion that "classical" music is inherently different than all other types of music. I'd always suspected that there's a magical aesthetic thread that connects all art forms. But what I'm starting to think now is that all art forms are just the same, and that any differences between them are mere formalities of realization.
As I watched eighth blackbird play Tied Shifts (2004) by Derek Bermel, I was pretty shocked by how they were playing it: having memorized the music, the players meandered around the stage, grouping, entering, exiting, conversing, basically "acting out" the music on the stage as they played it. And then it struck me that it's ridiculous that this could have rattled me so much... I've been to rock concerts, ballets, plays, sporting events, and here it's revolutionary that classical players can do something on stage besides sit in chairs and scowl into their music stands? If music is drama, can't it be theatre as well?
Can't any art form be any art form?
My head is spinning! I know, it doesn't take much to freak out fans of classical music, does it?
(From EB's website I learned that the group "especially loves Iowa." Why they do I couldn't begin to imagine.)
