Why is the image I see in the mirror, so
different from the image on the photograph? Which is a more accurate
portrait? And why do I feel so connected to this physical self when I've
accepted that we all are manifested from the same sauce of energy. Sounds like
crazy talk. It's difficult not to be foolish and cheesy
and egotistical. I used to lament that I hadn't become a musician, that I had
failed to develop the most passionate art. I blamed it on classical
flute, which ironically is what also opened the door to new music. New music is old music, very old music, when
music was nothing more than people getting together, ancient music that arose
as spontaneously as conversation. My
parents didn’t like the Music from Ugandan Jews CD. It wasn’t professional, they said. Just some people getting together in the
village to sing. But how much better can
it get than that, to be in the heart of the music making, not only in the
moment that the notes are produced, but the moment the notes are conceived? Often, it is not about notes at all. Often it is about wave or color or story or
dance or emotion. Notes, an artery in
the soul of sound. What about Evelyn Glennie? Watch Touching
the Sound and get back to me. What
about Meredith Monk and Keith Jarrett?
What about Andy Goldsworthy? (Another must see: Rivers and Tides. Same director.) The most beautiful things are revealed. All improvised, created in the moment for the
moment and nothing more. It takes time
to get reacquainted with these types of sounds, having become so attuned to
music engineered by industry, we no longer consider village music an art
form. A single listening is not enough. I must listen three or four or more times
until I can allow myself to hear what it actually happening. How to divorce our ears
from the perfection of the recording studio? How much spontaneous music
does anyone ever get to hear these days?
Maybe if you live in a big city where there’s lots of street
musicians. But mostly, musicians are
afraid to play what hasn’t been rehearsed many times before, because they are
competing with the engineered sound, highly refined and intellectualized and
commodified. Thank goodness for this new
music movement, appearing in house concerts from Appleton to Austin, our porch
music revolution. Thank you for sitting
on your porch Wednesday evenings when the weather permits and playing live music. And thank you for spreading
the word.
tad neuhaus, banjo
joanna dane, vocals
emily dickinson, words
No comments:
Post a Comment