Looking at the Big Picture
Though I had an interest in composition from an early age (bio),
my total lack of traditional musical education during my youth
ironically allowed me to approach classical music at the age of
17 with the wide-open mind of a child. My entire performing experience
at the time consisted of vocal fry effects (though I didn't what
they were called at the time) that I made imitating the guitar
stylings of classic rock bands like Aerosmith and Boston in the
privacy of my bedroom. With this hilariously and wonderfully uninformed
perspective, I descended upon the classical world in my senior
year of high school with crazy dreams of creating arena rock symphonies
in gigantic open-air amphitheatres with amplifiers under every
seat. Wild fantasies notwithstanding, from the very beginning
I set out to write music that was 1.) "interesting,"
2.) original, and 3.) accessible (in that order). Nearly ten years,
dozens of pieces, and several stylistic adjustments later, I still
look to these three basic principles during my creative process.
The experience of coming into music so late has gotten me into the
habit of questioning assumptions, always searching for the "big
picture." I brought a clean slate to notated music, with no
knowledge of the tremendous intellectual and artistic baggage associated
with the Western Classical tradition's lengthy history. I related
to Beethoven piano sonatas (the MIDI version, natch) and Ligeti
cello concerti as Music, in much the same way that I related to
those Aerosmith and Pink Floyd tapes in my boombox. It was hard
for me to understand, at first, why combinations of the two tradition-streams
(classical and popular; or, notated and non-notated) had so rarely
even been attempted, much less with any success. A big part of the
reason for Capital M's existence derives
from this perceived gap. Since no one else has yet bridged it to
my satisfaction, I figured, why not give it a shot myself?
Please see the menu at right to read various writings by myself
and others on this topic.
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Writings
Createquity
Brother,
Can You Spare $500: A Guide to Individual Fundraising for Composers
File
Under: Ambiguous
A Postmodern Convergence (1,
2, 3,
4, 5)
Relevant Links and Resources
ArtsJournal:
Critical Conversation
ArtsJournal:
PostClassic
ArtsJournal:
Sandow
beepSNORT
The
Fredösphere
Hertz-Lion
Yields
NetNewMusic
NewFrontEars
NewMusicBox
(guitar
issue, rock
issue 1, rock
issue 2)
Sequenza21
The Rest
is Noise
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