M a t t h e w D a l l m a n

T h e  D a i l y  G o o s e
A r c h i v e

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.
Impermalink

matthew@matthewdallman.com

©2003 Electric Goose Productions