jordanconductor: Worthy of consideration:
What’s Lost When the Cloud Replaces CDs
newyorker.comRecently, while moving my CD collection to new shelving, I struggled with feelings of obsolescence and futility. Why bother with space-devouring, planet-harming plastic objects when so much music can …
Universities and Symphonies alike are constantly looking for an essay or document in the application process and the prompt I’m writing against this morning (source link below) emphasizes diversity.
It occurs to me that programming practices and repertoire studies in the US cannot help but present a barrier to repertoire diversity, as masterworks are emphasized year over year rather than exposure to international genres. That’s not to say that masterworks should not continue to be studied, but there must be a structure for ensuring that a variety of cultures are represented. More to come on this topic.
Interpretation is a commonly understood term among musicians, a term denoting the “stylistic representation of a creative work." However, interpretation is often wrongly believed to be a self-consistent and complete toolset for preparing the score for performance. Rather than merely augment the accepted definition of interpretation, I propose that a new term must be used to represent the superset of tools valuable to the performer, of which the traditional methods of interpretation are a subset.
I argue for the use of the term Performance Design (PD) to indicate the totality of means and methods by which live concert performances are planned and prepared. Included in these means are tools from Neuroscience, Information Theory, and other audience-centric disciplines.
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| "Performance Desing: Repositioning Interpretation as One of Several Tools in Preparing for Total Musical Performance" by Jordan Randall Smith |
"There’s no money for a harp. How about an electric keyboard with a really good harp sample?"
I think that one of the reasons I struggle academically is that I get genuinely interested and invested in a given topic in a reading. And it makes me want to read up on any number of branching topics that get brought up. I want to ingest tables of useful information and investigate references, similar to the way we all do when occasionally getting lost down the never-ending wiki-rabbit hole.
But there really isn't time for that kind of exploration when you're in school. You kind of need to be detached and indifferent about what you're reading, because there is far too much to read to have the time to get interested and far too much to do to have time to write the thoughtful papers we may have inside us. It's a shame, because the whole point of being a student is growth and mentored investigation. It's a paradox, because the same structured learning environment both creates and poisons that energy. I hope one day we figure out a better way!
