Feb. ’24.
true nature eludes itself.
why do i find certain sounds cheap? the kitsch in us imbues sound as something containing a hierarchy of value- betraying sound’s inherent state of being unencumbered by meaning.
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in Darmstadt, August 2023, i had a lesson with noted improviser/composer Anthony Braxton. Braxton was the only musician/arbiter there amongst teachers and likely pupils removed from academia, removed from theory, only away from choice… among the first words he uttered to me were instructions on the importance of documenting a musical process.
process is unavoidable, inevitable of our attention therein. is it worthy to pay attention to that which is unavoidable? theory is the antithesis of process; theory is meditated, pondered, and upheld by a mythological veil of a tradition that any creator/consumer has no choice but to uphold, namely because it is just there. the issue with theory is its cyclical, contradictory tendency to use its subjectivity as an illusion of absolute freedom while preventing any challenge thereto, as long as it divests from what is commonly accepted.
- subject- the construction, not capable of being completely represented in its original form. demands an approximation (performance).
- theory- an attempt at giving ontological shape/reasoning to practice/process, though lacking in complete self-agency. distinction.
- practice - a process, though a process is not a practice. lived experience.
ablinger calls any investigation into a description of practice (or to some extents theory itself) as “transgressing subjectivity by making the subject visible”.
it’s terribly ironic how the modus operandi of contemporary practice has been a hyper-focus into subtleties of creation in an effort to detach oneself from classicists, just to make a new tradition/prison within itself.
theory, when presented as sets of pitches, as rules for form, as impetus for color, merely dresses the same principles and ideas of traditionalists with new clothing. not until a deemphasis of the same operations beforehand occurs do we have the right to deem anything ‘new music' at all.
pitches, form, harmony is not new. no one ever questioned the liberty of ensembles to play in the same venues, same manners, and same codified institutions. to repeat is not a sin; to repackage something and advertise it as new is something else altogether. theory is a package of what was. practice is a package of what is. sometimes, what was can be what is, and vice versa. sometimes this shouldn’t happen.
in practice theory can find its presence, but it doesn’t have to. in theory, practice never finds itself. things repeat themselves endlessly but they do not cling to any operating method or reputation.
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in something you can find nothing. in nothing can you find something.