Aug 2012
The Concert Setting
30/08/12 22:40
Is anyone else as sick of the traditional concert setting as I am? We put on our finery, penguin suits, and heels. We clap here, don’t clap there, and never ever laugh. The seats make my poor posterior go numb halfway through the first movement (and we are nearly sitting on top of our neighbors). The uncomfortable flip-chair I can afford is so far removed from the stage, I’m certain the concertmaster is in another time zone. And, my favorite, the music I enjoy in this ever so pleasing setting was popular several centuries before my birth, whereas the music of fellow living composers is lucky to be heard in the club down the street. Is this setting still conducive to experiencing music in rapid-fire 2012? Not for me.
The aesthetic is important. Music is a sensory experience. A sensual experience. While we spend years and dollars (and few enough of the latter) on the music and the musicians, and rightly so..., we ignore the “stuff around the notes”. Imagine, instead, a large hall dotted with tasteful leather armchairs, futons, and pouffy bean bag chairs. These circle a polished, black platform with plenty of room for your ensemble, whatever equipment you desire, and space for dancers or actors or whomever else you need to complete your performance. A series of spotlights, colored and not, are spaced across the ceiling, easily controlled from a readily accessible but tastefully concealed control room. In that same control room is a computer system to control the integrated recording and speaker system that saves you from hauling 300 pounds of cables and speakers and mixers everywhere you go. Young and old, educated and plebeian, rich and poor - all can intake a musical experience in this hall designed to cater to every sense, not just the aural.
Had I the means, this fantasy hall would house all my performances. We provide beauty for the ears and occasionally the eyes, but imagine how all-encompassing the musical experience would be when we are sensitive to the entirety of the sensory experience.
The aesthetic is important. Music is a sensory experience. A sensual experience. While we spend years and dollars (and few enough of the latter) on the music and the musicians, and rightly so..., we ignore the “stuff around the notes”. Imagine, instead, a large hall dotted with tasteful leather armchairs, futons, and pouffy bean bag chairs. These circle a polished, black platform with plenty of room for your ensemble, whatever equipment you desire, and space for dancers or actors or whomever else you need to complete your performance. A series of spotlights, colored and not, are spaced across the ceiling, easily controlled from a readily accessible but tastefully concealed control room. In that same control room is a computer system to control the integrated recording and speaker system that saves you from hauling 300 pounds of cables and speakers and mixers everywhere you go. Young and old, educated and plebeian, rich and poor - all can intake a musical experience in this hall designed to cater to every sense, not just the aural.
Had I the means, this fantasy hall would house all my performances. We provide beauty for the ears and occasionally the eyes, but imagine how all-encompassing the musical experience would be when we are sensitive to the entirety of the sensory experience.
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Inspiration
21/08/12 14:06
Inspiration. It comes in all shapes, sizes, colors, peoples, bodies, vistas, and the many stimuli that impact our sensitive senses. Today it came in the form of a friend. A quick chat, less than five minutes, kicked the wilting battery of my compositional brain into activity. The experience, no matter how quick or how seemingly insignificant in the back-breaking bustle of life, should be cherished. True inspiration, pure creation, is the closest we come to heaven.