Bridget Riley, study for Polarity, 1964
Dear Listening,
I sometimes get into a froth over just what we think music is for- it isn't, for example, a weapon. It has a dual citizenship, of course: you can listen to it, and you can play it. As in 'play' an instrument. So far so good. I think where I get bothered, is at the intersection of the two. Music, that is, noise you make on an instrument, does not care if you think it is "good."
Ah, now, you are wondering at the word 'noise,' where you thought maybe 'playing' should be. Noising an instrument. Voicing an instrument? What makes music, I think, in my un-educated but carefully observed way, is repetition. We are listening for a pattern*, and often, pattern can only be recognized when repeated.
Ah, now, you see how carefully I constructed that? I did not throw down that a pattern could not be a pattern if it was not repeated. Careful construction might help us to argue less, because I am not making a manifesto, I am wanting, rather, an expanded definition of music. Or maybe what I want is a deepened appreciation for noise.
Ah, now, to the real question: who matters when music is played, when noise is made on an instrument? For certain, player and listener could both matter, and they could be the same person, too. I posit that there is no listener without the player, so the player is more important: the player matters more. What matters to the player is a wide, wide sea of possibilities, and we won't explore that right now. What I am getting at, is that the listener (even if you are both the player and the listener) must STOP suggesting to those who make noise with, play on, instruments that they have to achieve an arbitrary level of experience or expertise or competency to make music. They are making it, goddamn it all to hell, no matter your judgement of the 'sound.' How can anyone invent anything if you won't even let them use the tool without telling them they are getting it wrong? Do you think good music is made by ever and forever practicing the same phrase, bar, song, composition? It is made, dear one, dear hypercritical silly rabbit who might be actually harming others by your insistence on 'expertise,' by noticing, by observing, what and when noises sound nifty.
Ah, and then, repeating it.
*Pattern, definition 3.
PS
Long-time readers of the Dodo might notice that these notions apply to visual art forms and writing, as well. Really fast thinkers will notice that the Dodo wouldn't even be here if I cared more for the reader than I do for the writing. The act of writing gives me something; it's nice if the act of reading gives you something, but turns out, it isn't a prerequisite.
Ah, and now, for your song/noise of the day, from the terribly exciting, music/noise making Orquestra de Instrumentos Autóctones e Novas Tecnologias, or the Oiant.
