Thursday, April 30, 2020
Expectations
Dislike of a particular style of music has do with expectations, hence it is a feature of the listener and not the music itself.
Now music itself works through setting up expectations and then fulfilling them, or frustrating them for a while before fulfilling them.
There are two levels to that. One is that a composer begins a cadence and then finishes it, for example. So the 5 chord, for example, will resolve to the 1. The second level is the we expect the music to work like that in general, that there will be such cadences in a piece. So expectations can be those set up within a composition (micro expectation, or else expectations about what a composition will do (macro).
An example of a micro expectation: for a given phrase, one can imagine the phrase that ought to answer it. If such a phrase comes, then there is a satisfaction in that. Imagine that the next phrase, instead of being the logical answer, so to speak, is a random phrase that doesn't seem to fit.
On the macro level, the expectation will be that generally speaking, there will be a certain logic in how phrases relate to each other in this kind of structure.
Imagine if we are used to a certain cadential structure and we hear Debussy for the first time. Now we think this is not how music is supposed to go. We bring expectations to Debussy that he isn't interested in. But after a while, we form new sets of expectations, and once we recognize that something is Debussy-type music, we expect it to "go" in a certain way. Seeing a piece of his as a failure to be Beethoven would like seeing an avocado as a failed cup of coffee.
What about "bad" music? Of course we are making judgments all the time, and rightly so. But what kind of judgment is not conditioned by expectation?
With poetry, we also expect certain things to happen. Bad poetry is all about frustrating expectations both on micro and macro level. The poem seems like it will do one thing, and then fails (micro). Or it doesn't conform to what we think a poem ought to be (macro). If we write a bad poem on purpose, then we are playing explicitly with those frustrations. A bad poem not written on purpose is one by someone who doesn't know how to do it in the first place.
Now music itself works through setting up expectations and then fulfilling them, or frustrating them for a while before fulfilling them.
There are two levels to that. One is that a composer begins a cadence and then finishes it, for example. So the 5 chord, for example, will resolve to the 1. The second level is the we expect the music to work like that in general, that there will be such cadences in a piece. So expectations can be those set up within a composition (micro expectation, or else expectations about what a composition will do (macro).
An example of a micro expectation: for a given phrase, one can imagine the phrase that ought to answer it. If such a phrase comes, then there is a satisfaction in that. Imagine that the next phrase, instead of being the logical answer, so to speak, is a random phrase that doesn't seem to fit.
On the macro level, the expectation will be that generally speaking, there will be a certain logic in how phrases relate to each other in this kind of structure.
Imagine if we are used to a certain cadential structure and we hear Debussy for the first time. Now we think this is not how music is supposed to go. We bring expectations to Debussy that he isn't interested in. But after a while, we form new sets of expectations, and once we recognize that something is Debussy-type music, we expect it to "go" in a certain way. Seeing a piece of his as a failure to be Beethoven would like seeing an avocado as a failed cup of coffee.
What about "bad" music? Of course we are making judgments all the time, and rightly so. But what kind of judgment is not conditioned by expectation?
With poetry, we also expect certain things to happen. Bad poetry is all about frustrating expectations both on micro and macro level. The poem seems like it will do one thing, and then fails (micro). Or it doesn't conform to what we think a poem ought to be (macro). If we write a bad poem on purpose, then we are playing explicitly with those frustrations. A bad poem not written on purpose is one by someone who doesn't know how to do it in the first place.
Wednesday, April 29, 2020
Brassens
I never listened to Brassens before. I think his melodies mimic the intonation of the French language. They have lilting, sing-song quality. I can hear exactly why he chooses to write melodies the way he does. They almost don't seem written, but are like the melodies one would naturally sing if one wanted to sing instead of talking.
I think Ibáñez does a similar thing in Spanish.
I think Ibáñez does a similar thing in Spanish.
My rhythm
Right now, I am working 2-3 hours a day on writing, and producing 150-200 words in each hour. You string together a few days like that, and pretty soon you have a nice chunk of a chapter written. I am doing one hour at a time. Aside from that, I am listening to relevant music related to my project.
I am also playing piano for about the same time:2-3 hours. Each hour I devote to a different task, usually playing walking bass-lines for the first hour.
I came up with a super-obvious idea yesterday. I was listening to PI, and I noticed what his melodies actually consisted of. It is obvious, but I didn't actually make note of it until I asked myself the right questions.
Here is my productivity report for the past few days:
I am also playing piano for about the same time:2-3 hours. Each hour I devote to a different task, usually playing walking bass-lines for the first hour.
I came up with a super-obvious idea yesterday. I was listening to PI, and I noticed what his melodies actually consisted of. It is obvious, but I didn't actually make note of it until I asked myself the right questions.
Here is my productivity report for the past few days:
April 28, day 4 of not fucking around
Two hours of writing: 11,900 on flamenco chapter!
Listened to podcast on Lorca and flamenco
Started to memorize “Postcard from a Volcano”
Zen practice: 6:45 a.m.
Therapy!
“Poetini”!
Piano: 3 hours!: bass lines / I got Rhythm / OP exercise 2
April 27, day three of no fucking around
Revised one section of preface / Flamenco chapter (2 hours) 11,300 words!
listened to Amancio Prada music & interview with him
listened to Nuestro flamenco episodes on “Poesía de autor” and Miguel Hernández (2 hours)
Blog post
Piano: 2 hours / OP exercise plus “I got rhythm”
Rolling prairie / ran dishes / bought Starbucks stock
Tuesday, April 28, 2020
Walsh...
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9780429292040
This sounds a lot like a book mine published in 2009. Oh well.
Monday, April 27, 2020
Recitative
I discovered what it is that Paco Ibáñez does: recitative: "musical declamation of the kind usual in the narrative and dialogue parts of opera and oratorio, sung in the rhythm of ordinary speech with many words on the same note."
This is super obvious, I guess, but I hadn't really worked on this section of my book until now. He can write a lot of songs very easily because you don't really need melodies, and this style is well suited to singing the classics of poetry, since the music is in the service of the words.
This is super obvious, I guess, but I hadn't really worked on this section of my book until now. He can write a lot of songs very easily because you don't really need melodies, and this style is well suited to singing the classics of poetry, since the music is in the service of the words.
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