Oh, Woe is Me

Been looking at local art galleries - I've joked that it's somewhat like bird watching; I'm hoping to see some Art but there are no guarantees! I've been surfing the 'net for inspiring new music as well - not much luck there either. Seems like the Arts are floundering in a sea of confusion and mediocrity.

This is feeding a sense of malaise and frustration with the World@Large here in my Studio as I am so close to finishing a new recording.

What seems to pass for 'new' and 'cutting edge' is generally 'cute,' 'kitchy,' and unchallenging, at best. Check out Chuck Amirkhanian's Otherminds archive at www.radiom.org. I'm listening to Daniel Bernard Roumain's Angelou string quartet. I've avoided it for some years, quickly understanding Roumain to be a faddist, and yes, I stand by my critique. He's not the best of musicians for starters, his composition is lacking in any sense, and the gimmick-ridden Angelou suffers profoundly from a lack of ... composition! There's simply no interest in it, no development, no quirks, no surprises, it's exactly what I expected - that ol' New York 'I Wish I Were a Rock-N-Roller' fluff. This is the stuff that the Europeans, when they ask for American Music, specifically pin-point and say, "NOT this. Something new." I guess I have to ask, what is the point of this piece of music? How is it expanding the art, or confronting a genre? What does it accomplish musically on its own? Does it have a context beyond the moment in which it was created? Was that context relevant at the time? Does the music accomplish what the composer intended? And, at the most superficial level, how does it appeal to craft? Is it well crafted? Well executed?

I will give Roumain kudos for energy, but not more than that. It frustrates me that audiences respond to this kind of work with any enthusiasm whatsoever. Forgive me for being a curmudgeon, but I'm weary of hearing the same old thing over and over again.

So how does this have an impact on what's happening in my studio? I've been dialoguing with a group of local artists, visual artists, who are all suffering the same malaise. One put it so well in our field-trip to investigate local galleries yesterday. At this point in history (this also apply to music) is understood as a commodity, and so is taken to be a luxury. But we all know that's not the case, that Art is a valuable expression of the Times, of Ideals and Ideas and Philosophies; it's the Conscious expression of the Collective Unconscious, and the means by which we find self-identity as a culture, a community and a people. I'll elaborate on this further (on another website - keep an eye out for it). So the work that an engaged artist creates is not a commodity, but the expression of an idea, a point of view. That is to say, the physical manifestation of work, i.e. painting, photograph, sculpture, is not the end itself, but is a byproduct of a tracing of thought and idea. This makes the work valuable beyond its physical materials and gives it the uniqueness that makes it valuable. And important to the times in which it is created.

The same goes for music. Concert Music in the US suffered from the fear of an inattentive audience. So it turned to popular forms, pop music, electronics, rock. That was cute at the moment and I won't deny it opened some doors, even for myself. But it quickly outlived its necessity when it didn't progress. By reducing Concert Music to the lowest common denominator, it didn't achieve the status of pop iconography, but retained the same low listenership, the same limited audience that it had before, and became dated. This is the kind of fad that we will look back on and groan about with an embarrassed sigh. It's not the stuff Beethoven based his work on.

So, this is my statement and pledge to continue to look forward, to hope to expand some ideas and present some challenges and ask for thoughtfulness on the part of my listeners.

The Attentive Listening Lab (watch my home page and the MAS-Lab home page for updates) is in the process of germinating and will begin to take form in the next 12 months. My own work... well, it's a step-by-step process and I'm not going to make any pretense about succeeding - I have to be fair and honest, because I don't know if I'm succeeding. If you've ever heard Chuck Wuornin talk, my gosh, he really has an axe to grind about the state of New Music. And he is 100 % right, but, unfortunately, he doesn't have the solution. He's only identified the problem. That's a first step and maybe the best one can hope for. I'm ambitious though and believe with a little self-application that more can be accomplished.

In the meantime, I need to sit with my pencil and paper in my studio and tackle the issues that have been rolling around in my head like marbles in a tin can...

Listening: Sam Sparro, Jean-Michel Jarre, Paul Horn.