Musique Contextus
Spent the last four weeks working on my latest ambient project and along the way I discovered a few interesting things.
1. As you move away from tonality, harmony and melody you move closer to noise.
2. Each noise has a unique character that – when combined with other noises – can create novel aural emotions.
3. Dissonance is to ambient music as red is to primary colors: they are part and parcel of our innate physiology, AKA perception.
Even though when most people listen to ambient music they go “huh?’ this doesn’t mean it is without merit. The ambient composer – freed from the boundaries of formal music structure – can more effectively represent emotions because they can combine noise/sound in more imaginative and unlimited ways.
Citizen Rock
Just saw Styx and Yes at the Greek Theater and throughout the night, I heard many attendees expressing their opinions on one or both of the bands. The comments basically boiled down to the following: Styx is like a Vegas show and Yes is getting old. What exactly does this mean? Since tickets were about a $100 each, I was curious why someone would shell out good money to apparently complain about these arguably seminal bands.
When we first heard those insanely great songs such as Renegade or Starship Trooper, our collective minds were blown. Those special feelings will always be stirred when we hear these bands play, especially the longing to hear them again for the first time.
And therein lies the rub. What I believe these aging concert goers are really expressing is simply the desire to be innocent again. To be free of the cares of adulthood and to return to a time when living life was full of firsts. In effect, they are saying “Rosebud.”
Rather than react negatively to a band that reminds one of a happier time, I’d suggest reveling in the feelings, shaking your booty and belting out a few Rebel yells. After all, those “old dudes” on the stage are there to help you do exactly that. God bless ‘em!
No Boundaries Equals Fun, Right?
Speak to any ambient composer and they’ll regale you with tales of how liberating it is to be free of any obligation to standard music theory. Harmony? Outdated thinking. Major and minor scales? What am I, a composer or a monkey blinding following rules laid down by some theorist from the past. This is the 21st century…I create what I want to create regardless of anyone’s rules.
Ah but the composition process is far from simple, rules or no rules. The Muse always exacts a toll to share her precious spirit with the composer. Your flaws are magnified in her presence; the insecure will be made to feel doubly anxious, the arrogant will break on the shores of their own egotistical making. Better to approach the Muse humbly and with an open mind than to proclaim your genius, for hubris will always be your downfall.
So then the ambient composer with literally every technology, noise, note and sound (heard and unheard) available for the composing, must break from self and enter into a covenant with the Muse in order to see the truth of the matter: that the only rules are no rules.
You Call That Music?
An acquaintance of mine recently listened to one of my ambient compositions. Their critique was “that’s not music”. When I asked them to explain what they meant, the response was “it’s not the kind of music I like.” The next obvious question was, well what kind of music do you like? After thinking a bit they responded “the kind I can dance to, you know like at the club.”
We all respond to stimuli and formulate opinions of that stimuli based on our own point of reference and experience. We are supposed to be taught in school to think outside our local point of reference, to place ourselves in a different context and see the world through unique eyes. To appreciate differences and better understand the world view of others.
Unfortunately - with rare exceptions – the teaching of music appreciation has declined in recent years to our detriment as a society. Just ask yourself when was the last time you listened to a song not from your music comfort zone. Today? Last year? Never?
So next week make it your mission to listen to one song from a genre or artist that you would never think of listening to. Listen to it completely and think about what the music is saying…you might be surprised what you hear.
What’s that?
When I tell people I compose music they invariably ask, “what kind of music?” I reply “ambient.” They’ll usually frown a bit then politely ask, “what’s that?”
Within 20 seconds of the explanation they’ll start looking at their toes, or phone or their drink and then say “that’s nice.” Basically, “you are not holding my attention so go away or do something really interesting like fart.”
It’s kind of like having to explain why there’s air or why Justin Bieber is popular in 30 seconds or less.
But….if they listened for 30 seconds this is what they would hear: Ambient music is simply music that comes from the cracks between the piano keys, from the notes left unplayed after a symphony, from the echoes in a cathedral. It surrounds each of us so completely that we hardly notice it: we usually call it background noise. The ambient composer, then, literally reflects this background noise back at the listener in a way that is both familar and strange.
“Through a glass, darkly”
