a creative blog.
engaging in the act of interpretation. the labor of realisation and the freedom to engage deeply with a piece of music.
“Now I see the maker as an extension of society, a cell within a larger organism. The issues with which he wrestles are not his alone. They are everyman's. He participates in the conversation of his field and the broader conversations of his culture. The current of ideas passes through him and returns to the body politic with whatever charge he puts on it. To the extent that the makers ideas are relevant, they pass from person to person (other makers, academics, merchants, collectors, and the general public), each one potentially adding his own charge, until finally the current returns to the maker, or the next generation of makers, in the form of a new cultural orthodoxy with which to wrestle all over again.
– Peter Korn, Why We Make Things And Why It Matters.
A Thing Made Whole (VI)
Commissioned for Distractfold’s 2020/21 at-home COVID project, The New Unusual, A Thing made Whole (VI) marks a significant shift in Andrew Greenwald’s compositional practice. In contrast to his previous works, there is prominent use of metres and rhythm, within which more chromatic-based pitch systems are spatialized – as opposed to fundamental-based harmonic structures. Whilst the processes behind Andrew’s music remain largely the same, the end goal seems to be one much more concerned with colour.
Trash TV Trance
Since first performing Mauricio Pauly’s Sky Destroys Dog as part of my undergrad recital back in 2015, the score for Romitelli’s Trash TV Trance has sat on my desk. It (I assume) was bought for me as an encouragement-infused thank you by Mauricio who was keen to see my involvement in new music continue, post-Dog. I would open the score periodically and work through different sections in search of what lay beneath the many challenges which this relatively simple-looking score presents. Having finally found the time during lockdown to string all these together and perform the piece in its entirety, I thought I'd share some musings from along the curve.