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Tuesday, January 27, 2004
RIFFS ON KEN WILBER'S AESTHETIC LINE: I wrote a short essay and posted it on the ICHI-Art blog page. It is an important line, or stream, which is useful for both assessing the subject that produces art, and the object that is produced as art.
Wednesday, January 21, 2004
ENDLESS THANKS: To everyone for the great feedback about my newest posted piece, the Music for The Unforgivable Thing. It is so heart- and spirit-warming to know that music I compose reaches you, even in a small way. I make no pretensions -- I compose little aural wave pictures that capture my own small glimpse of the Sea. Music is everywhere; I'm just driven for whatever reason to capture its various states and energy bodies in the medium of music. Keep the feedback coming. All of it is so very much appreciated.
AREAS OF INQUIRY OF INTEGRAL ART: In a recent ICHI-ART blog entry, where I occassionally moonlight, I wrote a piece that talks about the four quadrants and how to explore each in the contexts of art. Those contexts are integrally-informed artistry, integral avant-garde artifacts, and integral art interpretation. Here is what I wrote:
"There are three or four major fields of inquiry that an artists can explore within an IOS (integral operating system) for artists. These major fields of inquiry are essentially methodologies, common and well-understood within all fields of art. Each comprise an orientation that one can use to explore, reflect, create injunctions, and in general learn about art-making. This may all sound heady or theoretical, but in practice this is what artists do everyday in making art. As with all of integral theory, we can be more aware of what we are doing, so as to allow for greater focus, consciousness, evolution, presence, energy, life, vitality, and enthusiasm for our art-making. We can become more prone to altered state artistic accidents, that can transmit altered states and radical energy bodies to viewers, audience members, and anyone participating in the wondrous ongoing transcendance act that is art!
"Basically put, the four areas of inquiry are phenomenological, or introspective, inquiry (upper left quadrant), sensory empirical, or behavioral, inquiry (upper right quadrant), systems theory, or functional fit, inquiry (lower right quadrant), and hermenutical, or interpretive, inquiry (lower left quadrant). Conscious of the general nature of each form of inquiry, the artist can develop the skillful means of being able to explore each type of inquiry, and therefore each general quadrant of art-making, throughout the course of one's practice. In terms of being an integrally-informed artist, a pursuit that cultivates integral consciousness, these are general inquiries that an artist can explore. To explore any kind of inquiry, the artist creates injunctions (or exercises, games, activities, or exemplars) to generate information. This information is nothing other than various states of consciousness as well as various energetic bodies. The artist can be reflective and aware of all of this, and over time, can develop stable and permanent access to higher stages of development.
"An artist can also create art -- avant-garde art -- that transmits meaning, energy, and states of consciousness that reflect each of these inquiries. The choreography and presentation of dance, for example, can focus an audience's attention on phenomenology, or in layman's terms, inner perceptions of reality. Audience attention can be focused on sensory empiricism, or the movements and behavior of humans. Attention can be focused on systems theory, which means the ways in which humans, things, and objects of any kind fit together and interact objectively. Finally, the dance piece can transmit energy that focuses the audience on the various ways that humans interpret reality, along subjective dimensions, and this comprises hermenutic energy. All of this can be depicted in the various choices that an artist makes as he or she crafts avant-garde artifacts.
"Just as important as the first two areas (integrally informed artistry, and integral avant-garde artifacts) is the area of integral art and literary theory. This can simply be known as Integral Art Interpretation. So it follows that as people interpret art (critics, academics, and general audience people) these four areas of inquiry (and there can be more) can guide the interpreter into crafting a critical response to art that takes as much into account. Simply run through each of the inquiries and dig up as much information as one can. A 1st-person phenomenological account of a dance piece -- for example the perspective of the choreographer, in terms of his or her intentions, aesthetic sense, personal history, etc -- sometimes cannot be gained, especially if the choreographer has passed on and left no relevant written or audio material that discusses this. But an integral interpretation at the very least acknowledges the potential existance of a whole slew of information, according in part to the four types of inquiry, and is simply more comprehensive than merely looking at artistic intention, the empirical artifact, or the viewer responses alone."
Wednesday, January 6, 2004
THE UNFORGIVABLE THING: That is the name of my wife Hannah's film, and for which I composed the score. We just returned from the Twin Cities for a wonderful extended break. We stayed with our close friends Mark Stenglein and Arielah Moskow in stately St. Paul, Minnesota. Love that town!
I'm posting much of my new music, including this piece, on my aural blog page, aka The Momentary I. Check it out. I'm very excited about this piece, and I send out Kosmic thanks to Kale Olson-Reed, on violin, for performing the duet with yours truly. His playing made me laugh and cry deeply at the same time, which is the mark of top-notch violin in my book.
And, damn, Happy 2004 everyone!!
Friday, December 19, 2003
TOP FIVE CDs (in my CD player now)
1) A Wish -- Hamza El-din
HOLIDAY HAZE: Hey everybody. Hope everyone's holidays are going along smashingly. Hannah and I are staying the general Chicago/Milwaukee area for the family Christmas get-togethers, then it is up to the Twin Cities for a New Year's celebration with mucho friends.
Of course I'm busier than ever. I have music for three short films to record, several academic papers to tighten up, as well as final considerations to make for the releases of my two CDs. I am composing for a string quartet, and have begun work on my next CD, with a working title of I Am Sound.
I wish sanity to everyone through the next several weeks. With all the work I have to do, I know I'll need some.
Wednesday, December 10, 2003
AQAL IN THE WORLD: Here's an excerpt from my forthcoming essay, working title of Living Art Up and Down.
Wednesday, December 3, 2003
TOP FIVE LIST -- ELEMENTS OF MUSIC
1) Silence
Monday, December 1, 2003
TOP FIVE LIST -- COMPOSITION INJUNCTIONS,
1) Learn to sing in just intoned tuning
MORNING THOUGHT: The study of music is the study of deep vibration. Pure Music lies waiting, patient and quiet. When those that are properly tuned to their own deeper vibrations want to express those deeper energy currents in themselves and in all of life, they use music for that expression. Poets use music, dancers use music. So do filmmakers, sculptors, actors, and painters. Architecture, Goethe said, is frozen music. Music expresses our deepest being-in-the-world, our deepest perspectives. As we radiate vibrations into the world using words, actions, thoughts, and love, we radiate ourselves -- not as contracted ego-persons, but as the living voice of music -- as the living voice of the deepest vibrations that live not in time, but which create time itself. We love and need the vibrations of music because as sound manifests in time, for us to hear and feel mind-bodies, we see ourselves in the music. We feel our deepest vibrations. An ego disappears, and music shows itself to itself, as music. As life. As vibration. We sing gloriously our own deepest vibrations, our own deepest Spirit, in everything we do. Music is us, stripped away and in perfect tune.
Sunday, November 30, 2003
NEW ESSAY: Posted here, this new essay examines the perspectives a composer has when he or she decides to compose a chant. How to consciously access these four perspectives, aka the four quadrants, in the course of composition? Read the essay, and let me know if the inquiries I list are any help.
Tuesday, November 24, 2003
NAMING MUSIC: I recommend reading everything Greg Sandow writes about music. Not only is he the classical music critic for Wall Street Journal, NewMusicBox.org, and other publications, but here's the best part: he is a composer, too!
His newest NewMusicBox.org column gets at the problem with the genre name "new music." This blanket term refers to a multitude of musicians and music that come in some way from the classical European tradition. But with chamber groups such as the Kronos Quartet pushing the envelope of music for over 20 years, calling what they perform "new music" is quite misleading. Says Sandow:
"Well, new classical music, I guess. But now imagine a conversation I might have with someone from outside our field whom I meet at a party. "What do you do?" I'm asked. "Well, among other things, I write a column about new music." "What kind of new music?" "New classical music" - at which point the conversation might stop dead, as I've often enough seen conversations do when I mention classical music at parties. Sometimes, of course, I might get questions, like "You mean there really is new classical music?" or, more helpfully, "What's new classical music like?" His ultimate suggestion, "alternative classical," may be adopted, or it may not. I don't much prefer it myself. But that doesn't take away from the excellence of the column, so do check it out. Sandow is a treasure, and his heart and soul are in everything he does.
First of all, Sandow is right to acknowledge, if only casually, that quite literally, everything is music. This point needs more reinforcing from our highest musical spokespeople. As Count Basie and many others have said, "There are two kinds of music: good music and bad music." Amen to that.
How can we start the conversation about integral theory and music? How does this discussion fit into an integrally-informed discussion of music? Well, it is one part, naturally.
Any authentically comprehensive and non-marginalizing analysis of music, which anything "integral" has to be, would immediate realize that the "name" of a certain genre is in actuality only one of four primary perspectives one can have of music. There are four ways, essentially, that a musician (and music) can be-in-the-world. We can call those four native perspectives by many names, and one such set is: artist intention, raw musical elements, the formal organization of music compared and contrasted to other examples, and the cultural interpretation of all of those. Those are four slices of the infinite music pie, so to speak.
Each perspective, native and complete unto itself, nevertheless complements the other three. Simplified, the perspectives amount to: I-, It-, Its-, and We-based language and understanding. If we are to be complete and wholistic in our understanding of what music is, then we ought to at the very least be able to function fluently in each of these perspectives, as well as take them into account in any analysis. These four are known by the shorthand "the four quadrants." Taken as a whole, the four quadrants comprise one of the core components of integral theory.
In addition to the four native perspectives that we can take as we understand music, there is a second component that the best available research shows exists without a doubt. (I might add common sense tends to show this, as well.) A developmental stage conception is that very component, much to the chagrin of new-agers and postmodernity. What does "developmental stage conception" mean? It means people as individuals and as collective grow and evolve. More specifically for music, we tend to see that over time, one's intention, skills to create music, and ability to interpret music all develop and evolve through one's life. We can measure development using a variey of "developmental scales" that roughly measure development all the way down and all the way up.
What are some of these scales? I will list them here. Importantly, there is not one monolithic stage conception that applies in all situation, or for all perspectives. The basic idea scale, from which most of the particular scales are drawn is simply thus: body -> mind -> spirit. That is the most basic stage conception that cross-cultural evidence shows exists in generic form.
But that is just a generic, one size fits all stage conception. Wilber has shown that use of various stage conceptions are a more efficient means to describe evolutionary reality. One way to understand the various possibilities is to take each perspective and decide which is the most appropriate developmental measure. So let's do just that.
Here are some raw examples. First let's look at artistic intention. One's artistic intention can be informed by one's pre-personal sense of inner beauty (of aesthetics), non-differentiated from anything else. That aethetic sense can further inform one's artistic intention when it includes non-differentiated inner beauty PLUS personal beauty perceived from immediate surroundings and people. Furthermore, that more inclusive aesthetic sense can be informed by the beauty of everything sentient and non-sentient on the planet. Ultimately, the beauty of the entire manifest and un-manifest Kosmos can inform one's artistic intention in creating art. Such is what we call a mystical or spiritual awareness beauty. The general swing is from pre-personal to personal to transpersonal.
Now to the skills in actual composing. One's composing skills can be pre-operational, or pre-rational, based upon unadulterated artistic impulsivity. This means, literally, that one composes willy-nilly without any kind of exposure or education. Then the skills can evolve beyond pre-rational, and add rational and formal operations and concrete rules of music -- operational. We see often that this level of technical skill emphasizes that which is culturally decided upon to be "good". Nonetheless, this level exists cross-culturally. Finally, there are skills that include the two previous, then add abstract and mental conceptuality -- a post-operationalinner calculus, if you will, of music. So the general swing in this area is pre-operational to operational to post-operational. This particular scale applies to both the basic elements of music (silence, rhythm, tone, and color), as well as the complex organization of those in a music composition.
Finally to the skills in interpretation. One's ability to interpret music can be according to various value systems. Egocentric values determine value according to one's own self-determined system. Ethnocentric values are determined according to egocentric values as well as those of the tribe, group, society, or culture immediately around you. Worldcentric values are determined according to all ethnocentric values, plus the values inherent in most if not all world cultures. Kosmocentric values are all of the previous, plus those that are according to the deepest and most resonant creative energies.
So where are we?
We have the four native perspectives of music. In integral theory, these are called the four quadrants. Anothe way to conceptualize these are thus: The "I" of music, the "It" of music, the "Its" of music, and the "We" of muisic.
Additionally, we have developmental scales for each perspective: one for I, one for It/s, and one for We.
All this means we, as musicians, have perspectives as well as levels of development in each. It is this sort of discussion that can get the conversation started about "integral music" in a meaningful and resonant way, one that begins to honor as much about music as we legitimately can. This is one way we can be truly whole in our understanding of music.
Now, we can circle back to address the names that cultures (and cultural critics) attach to music. Sandow, in suggesting alternative classical, or alt-classical, addresses the interpretive perspective we can take in music. Furthermore, the level from which he is making this assertion is somewhere in the ethnocentric to worldcentric level. To be more precise, a closer analysis of Sandow would be necessary.
The point of knowing that Sandow's essay addresses the interpretive perspective at around the "exiting" ethnocentric level is that, for one, this helps organize and generally locate this discussion. AQAL gives us a basic framework with which to focus and refocus the world. AQAL, at its core, is simply the most inclusive and comprehensive system for focusing and being in the world out there.
Whatever utilitarian name we use for contemporary Western music informed at the least by operational and post-operational levels of development, let's start to think along these comprehensive, all-inclusive, non-marginalizing terms. Let's take an integral approach to our discussions of music. We can and should include discussions such as Sandow's. This is important stuff. But what happens if we first learn how to consciously and intentionally take as much into account as we can. What does the world of music look and feel like then?
Music, being a mystical vibratory energy that ultimately defies any such terminology, truly deserves -- even demands -- nothing less.
Monday, November 23, 2003
BULLET POINTS OF ARTISTIC IOS: Distilled from a new essay in my Writings section.
To understand IOS for art creation, you might follow this conception:
Creation of an artistic inquiry, or question, focuses one's awareness in a quadrant, in a general sense, or in a stream, in a specific sense.
To explore the inquiry in a practical sense, one uses an injunction, or exercise, of which there are two types, namely masculine and feminine.
What is brought forth from the injunction, no matter what the type, are states of consciousness sheathed in energetic bodies.
Disciplined and repeated exploration of inquiries and practice of injunctions over time enacts growth through various developmental levels.
Sunday, November 22, 2003
THE INFINITE CANVAS: Wrench lays down the word on the essential reality of art creation. The infinite canvas.
Thursday, November 20, 2003
THE MANIFEST: An interview of yours truly for the new e-mag The Manifest appears in the first issue, released today. The article is called "Dying for Sound", and uses a pretty funny lead photo from the November IU-Art meeting which was taken by Coolmel.
The interview, part I of II, was conducted by Editor-in-Chief Paul Salamone. Part II of the interview appears in Issue #2, scheduled to publish next week. Of course I am very excited about this, because this is a first for me. Thanks to Paul and the other editors, not only for honoring me with their first interview, but also for the readily apparent vision, hard work, and collaboration they have put forth to bring the very first integrally-informed e-mag into the world. May the first issue be but the beginning of some astonishing music.
A Big Three Cheers to The Manifest!
Wednesday, November 19, 2003
THE MATTRIARCHY: Alvar Audio + Matthew DeMerritt, at a rehearsal in Boulder, CO, before our Nov 9, 2003, performance of Where Everything is Music, my setting of the Rumi/Barks poem for spoken word, flute, and guitar.
3 Matts.
Thanks to Coolmel for the pic.
NEW RECORD ALERT: Curious Brew and Works 2000-2003, my second record as a composer, will be available within the month. You will be able to purchase online, download yourself, and the good ole fashioned way -- receive via snail mail and C.O.D.
Seven jamband rock songs, a new suite of classical guitar pieces, three new chants, a polyphonic motet, and an arrangement of my favorite Thelonious Monk tune for solo guitar!
Spiral Suite and Other Works 2001-2003 looks to be available by the end of the year. I am still waiting on permissions rights from the poets whose work I used in certain works on the album. But fear not, it will come!
AWAKE!: Very cool website about art and Buddhism. (via Chris Jones). We can realize the emptiness of form. I've long thought that being able, as a musician and composer, to turn off all the wonderful music in one's inner ears is a key tool towards a more skillful means of musical transmission to others. When you can consciously turn off the stream, the inner faucet, you can then turn it back on with more intention, awareness, and ability to, whenever you like, become totally at one with aural light. I like jumping off of musical cliffs. But sometimes what appears as a cliff is in actuality more of a small boulder. I like boulders, too. But when I am able to turn on the musical faucet with intention, those boulders I can jump over on my way up the big mountain. And then, with the pluck of an overtone, skydiving.
Wednesday, November 12, 2003
INTEGRAL ART!: Hey everyone. Just got back from Boulder. We had our Integral University Art Domain Meeting. As you know us original IS of Art cats were asked over the summer by Ken Wilber to join Integral University as the Art Domain. And what a meeting this November Salon was. I wish the whole world could have been there for our Sunday performance at the Dairy Center of the Arts. We had six integral artists perform, and we had an entire hallway filled with some of the most radiant visual artwork I have ever seen. I realize I am a bit biased as Host of the domain and as friends with the artists, but really their work was truly breathtaking. As we perpared for the performance, and watched as the crowd arrived, I stood in awe of the deep energy that had literally just spouted forth. Sure, all of this had been bubbling just under the surface for several months now, and sure it was inevitable that you will get something collective when you put 25 artists together. But the depth, resonance, joy, light, and exuberance of everyone involved -- from the musicians to the actors to the sculptors to the painters to the artisans to the audio/video archivists to the crowd -- all I can say is "good gawd wow!" Things are cooking, a world is growing, an energy is radiating, and consciousness is expanding. I literally wish the next meeting was next week. Yet I know the next meeting, likely in March, will rock everyone's bowing haus all the more given the time we will all have to germinate all these new integrally potent seeds.
WHERE EVERYTHING IS MUSIC: I'm most excited to tell you about my newest composition. Alvar Audio featuring Matthew DeMerritt performed a setting of the Rumi poem Where Everything is Music, translated by Coleman Barks, during the November Integral U Art meeting. Of course Wrench was on poem, the burgeoning spoken word rockstar that he is. I played my classical guitar in a sparse yet pulsing palatte of color, and Matt DeMerritt played flute in a way that transmitted the pure graceful love that embodies his very being. What a treat and pleasure it was to meet Matt in meat-space. The rehearsal of the piece was a trip, a collaborative journey, and the performance gave us all "micro-surprises" moment to moment. We will definitely make this piece available as soon as possible. What a dream to work with these two artists in a project that made us all dig deep into our souls with drunken graceful laughter and love. The other artists quickly dubbed our group the Mattriarchy. To that, I sing Spin On!
Sunday, November 3, 2003
ALL INSTRUMENTS ARE WONDERFUL: ... and the piano is no exception. My own piano is a treasure of my home, faithful companion, mysterious partner. But it's really no more important than any other instrument. It has it's benefits and drawbacks. Is it any more fundamental a tool for composition? Not really.
Bach lovingly call piano-based composers, Knights of the keyboard. That pretty much says it all. Of course, the same is true for knights of the guitar, the saxophone, the violin, mandolin, voice, djembe, and harmonica. Hooray for knights of the tambourine!
Instruments exist to realize and manifest sound that originates from a radically non-manifest place. Our little aural pictures frame but a slice of the larger, invisible Sea of Music.
Musicians play an instrument in order to realize music. The converse -- musicians play music in order to realize an instrument -- is unfortunately true for far too many people. The fundamental misconception is that music IS the 12 tempered notes. Or is the 33 notes, or is the 55 notes. The reality, which ought to be taught in undergraduate programs, if not high school, is that music is only approximated by the 12 tempered notes.
Once you realize that truth, then really the question of how to compose music has very little to do with any instrument in particular. We use the best, most resonant technology we have -- I prefer the resonances of wood, metal, reed, and muscle -- and let our imagination, dreams, Eye of Contemplation, and mystery do the rest.
Wednesday, October 28, 2003
EXCUSE THE BREAK: Many apologies for the extended duration of my time away from updating my blog. I am pleased to inform you that I successfully recorded the three movement work, Suite of Gradual Embrace with my good friend Andrew Carlson two weeks ago. The work is for voice and guitar. Each movement is a pop song that I've recording and performed in many environments, including in the Matthew Dallman Band songs, listed on this site. Look for this new work available for streaming very soon.
Also posted a new essay in the Writings page. It is called The Integral Tuning Fork, and it is an introductory statement to help continue the process, hopefully, of starting the conversations on integral art.
The main reason for the lack of updates is simple. I have been hard at work for the very first Integral University Art Domain Salon Meeting. Much is in the works, including AQAL performance workshopping and critique sessions of Associates' art, a collaborative piece by the Flexflowchestra that aims to create a post-collaborative multimedia work of art, and other recorded events that will help generate knowledge and learning for the IU-Art site. We have many people at work in the planning and scheduling of the events for the weekend, including Wrench, James Wagner, Andy Acker, Tripp Wagner, Chris Jones, and Dana Tanner, to mention a few all-stars. This is truly a lot of work but it is very satisfying. This is the kind of work that brings love and challenge, but at the end of the day leaves you feel full, happy, and quiet.
Wednesday, October 15, 2003
ALTER YOUR STATE: Experiential pointing out instructions to open as sound, just posted on the Writings page.
Some may take for granted the ability to hear music, or even a single pitch, in your head. For others, this injunction may be entirely new. We can all be Mozart, this I truly believe.
Wednesday, October 8, 2003
EXTRA EXTRA!: Plenty of new additions to the site in the last
two days. Momentary I is awake, and invites your Eye of Flesh, Eye of Mind, and Eye of Contemplation. I would love to hear any feedback you have for my aural blog.
Also added several more recordings of my jamband, the Matthew Dallman Band. These are culled from our exciting inaugural live show in Minneapolis 13 months ago. MDB is will perform in early 2004 in Minneapolis/St. Paul.
HAGAN ON TILLICH: Mike Hagan, IU-Art Associate, professor, hip-hop
artist, and self-professed "Professor E.G. Madhman" writes a deep and thought-provoking essay, "Paul Tillich: Theology of Culture", which culminates with this eye-opener:
Tuesday, October 7, 2003
ALVAR AUDIO LIVES: Wrench and I recorded this past weekend.
It was the occassion of him and his girlfriend Channon visiting us in Chicago, and of course we painted the town the multicolor
of funk. We recorded four pieces, both for spoken word and guitar. Two originals -- The Great Chain of Breathing and Seven Candles and two covers (Whitman, Gudo). More info to come on how to experience these Alvar Audio recordings.
KANDINSKY AND AQAL: I posted a new essay on the Writings
Page. It's called, "Two Pieces on Kandinsky and Integral Art Creation".
Tuesday, September 30, 2003
MICKEY, 1993-2003: My dog. A friend. She's been with me for almost ten years, through most
of my interesting hairstyles. 6 cities, 10 different apartments, countless friends, several near-death experiences,
innumerable chased squirrels. Hannah and I held her as she passed through her final breath this morning. Of course Spirit
is unchangeable, unmutable, eternal, ever-present. But the opportunities to learn, grow, and laugh with those you love are
to be cherished at every opportunity. I'm numb as I write this. At least Mickey was in no discernable pain these last two or so
weeks, including today. At least she was more or less her vibrant self as the tumor ate at her spleen. At least she was
all about love through the very end. I think she always just wanted to protect us, look after us, watch out for us as best she
could. She trusted us, we trusted her. She was a dog. But that makes any kind of relationship all the more special, because
crossing the language barrier twixt the species takes nothing but time. For all of you who knew Mickey, the sweetheart, you
know what I'm talking about. She was the greatest. Again, she was a dog. But she was my good friend. And I miss her so much.
Thursday, September 25, 2003
MEYER SHAPIRO: Some wonderful
critical pieces by art critic and scholar Meyer Shapiro, who discusses several paintings by Cezanne. It's clear from his perspective
that he truly loves the paintings he writes about. What a breath of fresh air.
Sunday, September 21, 2003
ON FEAR: Wrench has a great entry in his Tuesday, September 16, 2003
ITP diary.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: From the master, Hazrat Inayat Kahn:
Rhythm, tone, and color, these are inescapable, and constitutive of our very fiber.
Human life is music, is play, is sound -- embodied.
Saturday, September 20, 2003
TREY ANASTASIO is a true musician. My own history with his music probably isn't all that different than your average
Phish addict. I started listening to that band around 1992 and was quickly hooked. I traded bootlegs like a champ, and I
collected probably 300 shows. I've attended 20-odd meat-space shows, though none
in the last 4 years. I saw some pretty jaw-dropping shows, including the Mud Island Tennessee show with a 53-min Tweezer,
and their 2nd Halloween show in Chicago, famous for their rendition of The Who's Quadropenia, yet in my opinion had a first
set to end all first sets.
The cliche is true: Phish must be heard live. The energy of the live shows can be intense, hysterical, and they
are great entertainers. Even now, I listen to a couple of their records pretty regularly -- especially Farmhouse. All
in all, however, after soaking in the band's Hose solid for 7 years straight, I have moved on knowing that the music is a part
of my daily breath.
All of which made the development of Trey's recent project all the more amazing, and from my point of view, quite
needed. I'm talking about his solo project,
the Trey Anastasio Band, an amazing ten-piece band,
including 5 kickin' horns. Trey has talked a great deal about this band, and
his conceptions as the out-and-out leader. A recent quote from Trey is worth repeating in full.
Talking about the band, he relates the following:
Many people don't know this about Trey, namely that he attended a classical music program for a time at the U of Vermont,
and that he received private instruction in composition and arranging from Ernie Stires, a Vermont composer. Also, many people
don't know that Trey has composed for classical orchestra, a project he completed after Phish went on their 3 yr hiatus.
So in general, I believe it's quite reasonable to look at the Trey Anastasio Band as his opportunity to stretch out and
work out ideas that Phish couldn't accomplish, because the ideas in Trey's awareness needed more than 4 musicians. In
several occassions, Trey has said that he loves music that has both a great groove and deep structural nuance,
openly available for people
who listen closely. You might say he intends musical complexity clothed in booty-scooting outer-wear.
I suggest any sort of integral music would take this kind of user-friendliness into account. Having a full
effect with music can involve popping a listener's body (funk), mind (fugue), and spirit (flash).
Tuesday, September 16, 2003
LEVELS IN ART-MAKING: So let's cut to the chase. For the time being, let's say that there are
two developmental streams in art-making. (I have written previously about 6 streams, and it appears that at least two more
can be added, totaling 8. But let's leave those aside for the moment for simplicity's sake.)
Let's say that the two development streams in art-making are called the Aesthetic stream and the Expression
stream. Briefly defined, the Aesthetic stream is the stream where an artist develops aesthetic sense, which is basically
a subjective appreciation of beauty. The Expression stream, on the other hand, is the stream where as artist especially
develops technical skills, and the ability to represent vision in art.
With these two streams understood -- and I do think they are self-explanatory, and common sense to any artist -- then it appears
that in each of these streams, there are levels of development that an artist cultivates. Ken Wilber has stressed in
recent excerpts on his site that when you are talking about different streams, you have to be careful to use appropriate
level conceptions. One stream has a language for the level desciptions that can not and should not be used for another stream.
To commit this error is to fall into the trap of "stream absolutism". All this will become clear as we examine the two streams in
greater detail.
I think it's safe to say that there are more levels in the Aesthetic stream than in the Expression stream. This might be because
as a stream built upon the vast art-interpretive culture -- made up of art history and theory books, to say the least -- the Aesthetic
stream simply has more volume to it.
We can talk about levels in the Aesthetic stream in basic terms, or precise terms, and Ken Wilber does both. Let's stick with
the basic stuff for the time being. So within the Aesthetic stream, there are at least three basic levels of artistic/beauty
appreciation. Ken refers to the ability to perceive at each level by the term "Eye". As such, the Eye of Flesh reveals
sensorimotor beauty. The Eye of Mind reveals mental beauty. And the Eye of Contemplation reveals subtle and spiritual beauty.We
will flesh these out more, but this is the general sense of levels in the Aesthetic stream.
With the Expression stream, the level language I use here may sound similar to that of the Aesthetic stream language, but
remember that while with the Aesthetic stream, we are referring to subjective perspectives, with the Expression stream
we are referring to objective perspectives. In the Expression stream, technical skills and craft development occur,
and in general the Expression stream falls within a broad perspective we can call "behavioral".
So, within the Expression stream, as we are calling it, the first level of development is sensorimotor "grappling" with
your medium, instrument, and tools. When a "passing grade" in sensorimotor skills is reached, the artist proceeds to mastery of
the concrete operations and rules within their medium. Development then proceeds towards mastery of very mental and abstract skills that
nonetheless directly affect the artist's ability to communicate and express artistic vision. One example of the mental/abstract
level is improvisation within jazz harmonic principles, especially in bebop and post-bop.
A key final point (final for this blog entry) is that while one might tend to think that development only proceeds in
one direction, namely from simple to more complex, I suggest that an artist remember the following idea, especially
with regard to the Expression stream. In most cases, perhaps all, one never can fully master even the most simplest of expression
skills. With musicians for example, you can always turn the metronome clicks a bit higher, and especially from a world-centric
stance, there are always new techniques to learn out there if you are open, aware, and in need of them.
Therefore, let us not forget the lower levels of developement as we proceed along out artistic journeys. Simple technique, as
W.A. Mathieu suggests, can at first seem mundane and boring, yet over time can become true touchstones of artistic practice.
And we don't want to only practice simple technique, or only practice advanced technique. We may want, ideally, to be able to touch
different levels of Expression development through a technical practice. Developing a specific injunction or set of injunctions to
accomplish that very task -- that part is up to you.
Monday, September 15, 2003
THE ARTWORLD NEEDS INTEGRAL: Emma Tennant recently
reviewed the book Art, by Julian Spalding, who is a curator an gallery director with
30 years of experience. Damning much of what passes for art-making in academia, Tennant writes:
It's unclear what Tennant means by "introspection", because it could mean development of aesthetics (via meditation on
formlessness or meditation on artistic form), or it could mean existential analysis paralysis where the artist rationalizes him or
her self out of following a true artistic vision. I suggest it's obvious that we want to excourange the former while discourage
the latter. Increasing our conscious light via increased aesthetic development is vital to one aspect of art-making. But
at no time do we want anything to get in the way of the divine and mysterious process of beautiful art-making.
What we mean by an integral (or AQAL) art-making approach is simply that we cover all the relevant bases in our art-making
practice. We don't want to priviledge the virtues of just one or a couple practices at the expense of others. Defining and expounding
upon the details of each of the relevant bases or components of AQAL approach is the work we are doing through the Art Domain of
the Integral University. (Some of which is previewed on this website.)
The reason "skills" are undervalued and therefore less taught in art schools, I suggest, has to do with the subtle value
system that is attached to skills mastery. In our current culture that deals with the sacred and the profane in a single breath,
that emphasizes (rightly as far as it goes) the inate ability that every person to be creative and have the right to create
art. Our cultural value system (a mix of Orange and Green via the Spiral Dynamics framework) goes to great lengths to assert
a heterarchal approach. If we overtly value skill mastery in the arts, the thought goes, then we consciously might value one
form of art-making over others, or in this case, valuing art with high skill mastery over art with lower skill mastery. We don't
want to seem oppressive to any creative person, our culture insists, so let's downplay skills mastery over the beauty of creativity
at any level of development.
Carried to an extreme (not so rare in my experience), skill mastery is thrown out directly out of the classroom. What is left
is art-making born of, ehem, cult of personality----often times, the agenda of particular art professors becomes the norm
by which art students must work their art. Ken Wilber has called this Boomeritis in academia, and it's right on the money.
All value systems are out, the thinking goes, except for the value system of the particular professor.
How egalitarian.
Enter Integral University. And let the funky fun begin.
Sunday, September 14, 2003
MELODIOUS THUNK: A new re-issue of Thelonious Monk'sUnderground. Reviewer Fred Kaplan
captures Monk's brilliance
well when he writes:
Thursday, September 11, 2003
NOVELTY ÜBER ALLES: Decent article in Newsweek recently, Mostly Not Mozart, that makes one very astute observation. I have written before
about what I term difficult music, which is what makes up so much of the 20th C music literature.
Here's Newsweek's Tara Pepper (italics mine):
©2003 Electric Goose Productions
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2) The Soul of Mbira: Music of the Shona People
3) Trey Anastasio -- Trey Anastasio
4) Hildegard von Bingen: 11,000 Virgins, Chants for the Feast of St. Ursula -- Anonymous 4
5) The Bali Sessions (gamelan) -- various Indonesian musicians, recorded by Mickey Hart
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There are authentic tools, supported by cross-cultural evidence, that an artist can use in their artistic practice. Through the coherency and simplicity of AQAL and IOS, artists can become integrally-informed. Their consciousness can be integral, full of love, comprehensive, honesty, and in tune with the Kosmos. The world that authentic integral consciousness can create is breath-taking in its resonance. The art that authentic integral consciousness can manifest can pop us all into a body of Divine light. Integral consciousness can create authentic transformation, and we are realizing more and more how prone to Kosmic resonance we can all be.
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2) Rhythm
3) Tone
4) Color
5) Essence
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TECHNICAL STREAM:
2) Sing through Bach chorales, playing piano for other three voices
3) Learn 16th European Counterpoint for at least four voices
4) Learn 18th European Voice-leading for at least four voices
5) Learn W.A. Mathieu's Pentamorous Harmonic Lattice
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"I think we might need another term for what we talk about here. Our genre, obviously, is "new music" - but what does that mean? The words themselves don't say very much. There are all kinds of new music—new salsa, new merengue, new Christian rap, new Mariah Carey remixes. Which "new music" do we mean?
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One stage.
The Mattriarchy.
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For in his own ideas no symbol can contain the essence of the Ultimate, but rather that the ultimate grasps us through the symbol. If the symbol is seen as Ultimate in itself, then the symbol is an idol, a demon that must then be transcended for a new form that can grasp us again in correct relationship with all the multidimensional unity that is life.
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But the one whose heart is open - he need not go as far as the forest; in the midst of the crowd he can
find music. At this time human ideas are so changed, owing to materialism, that there is no distinction of personality.
But if one studies human nature one finds that even a piano of a thousand octaves cannot produce the variety that human
nature represents: how people agree with one another, how they disagree; some become friends after a contact of one
moment, and some in thousand years cannot become friends. If one could only see to what pitch the different souls
are tuned, in what octave different people speak, what standard different people have! Sometimes there are two persons
who disagree, and there comes a third person and all unite together. Is this not the nature of music? The more one
studies the harmony of music, and then studies human nature - how people agree, and how they disagree, how there is
attraction and repulsion - the more one sees that it is all music.
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"And he [Ernie Stires, his music mentor] said to me at one point, he said, 'now your head is out of the muck enough to see
that there's a mountain to start climbing'. Well, you know that's music. I don't think you ever necessarily do it. But I
could articulate it a little more through this album. You take Last Tube as an example -- I think it's all in there.
Where it's a very -- it's a cross-rhythmic piece of music that grooves very hard. There's probably 30 musicians playing.
There's bit of improvisation and bits of charted-out part depending on who the musician was. Like the bass clarinet
lines are written out and the trombone lines and trumpet lines are improvised because the musicians I was working with,
the trumpet player, was a great improviser -- Nicholas Dayton. The bass clarinet player is a classical musician.
So you
use whatever tools possible to get to this point, the music you're hearing in your head. And what I was trying to hear
was a deeply grooving piece of music that had the spirit of improvisation but where it never becomes mundane or
repetitive. So it's almost like -- I've been listening to a lot of big band music. The Sauter-Finnegan Orchestra,
I listened to the most because they're two of the greatest arrangers, and it's a constant invention, an elegance,
and creativity in these arrangements. Very deep. So I want to see if you could get to that point in the world of
music that I live in which is kind of improvisational rock."
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....Spalding describes how difficult it is nowadays for a
young artist to find the right language with which to express his or her ideas. The loss of the old atelier system is
noted, but even worse, and not mentioned, is the disappearance of the craft ladder which enabled aspiring artists of
the past to realise their dreams. Hogarth engraved silver; Turner coloured lithographs; David Roberts painted stage
scenery; Renoir decorated china. None of these possibilities is open to today’s 'fine art' students. They are under
great pressure to be 'creative' and to 'express themselves', but they have not been taught the skills with which to
do so, as it is no longer thought necessary to learn to draw, paint, carve or model. The divorce between art and craft
is complete. No wonder there is so much angst and misery at these places. Spalding underestimates the depths of the
slough of despond into which our art schools have sunk. As Professor Anthony Storr wrote, 'Introspection is the accomplice
of self-distrust and the enemy of action.' Yet introspection is encouraged as never before.
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Thelonious Sphere Monk was a musician and composer every bit as unique and strange as his name.
He worked out his own concept of time, his own rules of harmony, and his own method of touch. He could play,
simultaneously, honky-tonk stride with his left hand and avant-garde dissonance with his right hand; pound out arpeggios
with the oddest flats and sharps imaginable; disrupt phrases with abruptly angular turns—and manage somehow to make it all
sound right. Today, no other pianist sounds at all like him; nor have any, however otherwise brilliant, bothered to try
to.
Well said. When it came to composing for solo jazz piano and small combo, there was simply no better composer
than Monk -- ever.
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"Today, modern classical music is completely marginal to mainstream culture. In part, that's because there are so many more
entertainment options. But it also reflects a fundamental change in the composer's role in society. Whereas Bach was
employed by dukes and churches to churn out masterpieces on a weekly deadline, during Mozart's lifetime there was a
shift to the notion of the composer as a romantic genius, sitting alone--and preferably starving--in a garret. Gradually,
originality became prized above all else, with dire consequences-a distinct absence of melody that made many new
compositions inaccessible and unmemorable."
Ken Wilber has written extensively about how contemporary life is fractured and dissociated. The "Big Three" of Art, Morals,
and Science used to be more or less controlled and dominated by a central authority, as with the Church during the Middle Ages
in the West.
I suggest that the prized "originality" Pepper writes about could also be called freedom, as in the freedom
composers wanted to have from central authority. And we can see through even a simple scrutiny of much of the difficult music
of the 20th C, the freedom composers explored was not only social freedom, and moral freedom, but also
rhythmic freedom, tonal/harmonic freedom, and color freedom.
Freedom is everywhere in contemporary music. Musicians in a post-Cage world can literally manifest any sound
and call it music. Composer W.A Mathieu writes extensively and persuasively on living a "musical life" that can appreciate
and experience the music of everyday existance, the symphony of the kitchen, the opera of the traffic jam, the chants of technological
machine hum.
Matt Rentschler coined the term, Infinite Canvas, and there's no better way to communicate the complete freedom
composers have, and all artists have, in creating art. I suggest creative people no longer need to bang on the drum of social, moral, spiritual,
and bevavioral freedom. We have it, and modern technology--home computers with editing software--nails this point home.
Perhaps Bach, in his humble wisdom, gets it right when he said the most important part of music is its effect on the audience.
We have an Infinite Canvas upon which to manifest our art visions. But will others, our lovely and irreplaceable audience,
will they understand the visions? Shouldn't the audience be able to receive artistic visions transmission without needing a vast
amount of cues and explanation?
How integral can the effect of my art be?
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