http://musicbyaiw.com/philosophy.cfm Mon, 05 Dec 2011 07:07:59 GMT http://bandzoogle.com http://musicbyaiw.com/philosophy.cfm?feature=2974778&postid=1581707 For as long as I can remember, I have had an overwhelming desire to write music. There were definitely times I found myself composing for the sake of gaining approval from a mentor, instructor, or family member. But the majority of my experience with writing has been dominated primarily by an impulse to express something that only music can say. To me, a composition is most powerful when it is produced with urgency. It will not be a careless process. The ideas won’t pour out of me with haste, but they will be arrived at with a sense of immediacy. As an expressivist, I believe that this is the purist way to produce music.  In order to explain how I create music I like to make the distinction between music that is created for a practical purpose, utility music, and music that is created to express something impractical. I call the latter pure music. I write pure music when I want to communicate an impractical feeling, emotion, thought, or attitude to someone that I cannot effectively convey with ordinary conversation. For example, there are times when I love someone but I don’t know how to say it. The vague urges and feelings of confusion that I have under these circumstances motivate my best material. This works out best when it is also a feeling that many other people resonate with. Utility music, on the other hand, is something created with a normal purpose in mind. When music is produced primarily to sell a commercial product (e.g.alchohol, perfume, food) it is not pure. Nor is music pure when its primary purpose is to guide people from one place to another during a ceremony or dance. When music is produced with ceremonial or commercial intentions, its content is censored by its producers based on its ability to perform a specific function. Pure music, by contrast, does not get modified by any such process. Just because I want to convey a feeling to someone through a piece of music doesn’t mean I will revise the work based on her reaction. In many cases, she may never hear it at all. In other words, my music becomes less pure as I tailor it based on its ability to get specific reactions from others. It is most pure when it is expressive. Once again, a piece of pure music’s attractiveness and popularity depends a lot on whether it is expressing feelings that many people relate to. Of course in some cases, however, artists are not popular until long after they’re gone, and their work resonates with audiences of a different generation (Van Gogh and Charles Ives come to mind). These artists may not enjoy success during their lifetime, but their work has an integrity that transcends the practical aspects of their time. They don’t tailor their work for specific utilitarian results, and even if they are hindered or hurt by their lack of popularity, their craft is not guided by their desire to win over audiences. On the contrary, it was guided by their desire to express something.
In order to explain how I create music I like to make the distinction between music that is created for a practical purpose, utility music, and music that is created to express something impractical. I call the latter pure music. I write pure music when I want to communicate an impractical feeling, emotion, thought, or attitude to someone that I cannot effectively convey with ordinary conversation. For example, there are times when I love someone but I don’t know how to say it. The vague urges and feelings of confusion that I have under these circumstances motivate my best material. This works out best when it is also a feeling that many other people resonate with. Utility music, on the other hand, is something created with a normal purpose in mind. When music is produced primarily to sell a commercial product (e.g.alchohol, perfume, food) it is not pure. Nor is music pure when its primary purpose is to guide people from one place to another during a ceremony or dance. When music is produced with ceremonial or commercial intentions, its content is censored by its producers based on its ability to perform a specific function. Pure music, by contrast, does not get modified by any such process. Just because I want to convey a feeling to someone through a piece of music doesn’t mean I will revise the work based on her reaction. In many cases, she may never hear it at all. In other words, my music becomes less pure as I tailor it based on its ability to get specific reactions from others. It is most pure when it is expressive. Once again, a piece of pure music’s attractiveness and popularity depends a lot on whether it is expressing feelings that many people relate to. Of course in some cases, however, artists are not popular until long after they’re gone, and their work resonates with audiences of a different generation (Van Gogh and Charles Ives come to mind). These artists may not enjoy success during their lifetime, but their work has an integrity that transcends the practical aspects of their time. They don’t tailor their work for specific utilitarian results, and even if they are hindered or hurt by their lack of popularity, their craft is not guided by their desire to win over audiences. On the contrary, it was guided by their desire to express something.]]> Mon, 05 Dec 2011 07:07:59 GMT 5FBBEA34D22B98C86A5AFF5BAC7C57B1