Part 2
Late producer SOPHIE said: “You have the possibility [...] to generate any texture, and any sound. So why would any musician want to limit themselves?” What's your take on that?
I think it is important to live and work within clearly defined limits and rules.
I actually feel more free when I working with restraints and within a rules-based order. This may sound contradictory - but having too much freedom is limiting and constricting. I find that working within rules - even if the rules are of my own making - to be very inspiring. I do not need to have access to everything - but by using rules I can bring about a state of order from the chaos. Consequently - an anarchistic ‘anything goes’ approach is detrimental to my creativity - it is not inspiring - nor is it culturally fulfilling.
One of the reasons why Arnold Schoenberg developed the twelve-tone system - also known as dodecaphony - was in response to the need for a new compositional method - or rules-based musical order - that could provide structure and coherence in the increasingly dissonant and atonal music of the early 20th century.
At first sight the twelve-tone system seems very restrictive - but it gave birth to a whole new world of musical masterpieces from not only Schoenberg - but also from Anton Webern - Alban Berg - Karlheinz Stockhuasen - Elisabeth Lutyens - and many others.
The artist Piet Mondrian - who was a contemporary of Schoenberg’s - painted with only the three primary colours: red - yellow and blue - plus black grid-line and white ground. Working within this very restricted palette he was able to create works of lasting genius.
Working within a rules-based order - within boundaries and restrictions - helps to focus the mind - and creates simplicity and clearness of thought. It also seem seems to offer almost infinite possibilities - whereas having no rules seems to limit creative possibilities. This may seem contradictory - but from my own experience - having limes creates a situation of being limitlessness - and that own is able to get a glimpse - even if for only a brief moment - of the infinite.
Do you feel that your music or your work as an artist needs to have a societal purpose or a responsibility to anyone but yourself?
This is always a very difficult question for any artist to answer. On one level art - music - and literature are superfluous to society as a whole. Society cannot function without plumbers - electricians - engineers - farmers - nurses - or soldiers - and it can exist very well without artists and other creatives. On the other hand - art and music etc. is evidence that society has reached a high level of civilisation. High quality music and art can help to generate high level thinking - which would have a benefit to society.
Ataraxia (ἀταραξία)
My compositions do not have a specific function - or an end gaol - other than to exists as a piece of music. However - one important aspect of my compositions is that it should hopefully create a state of ‘ataraxia (ἀταραξία)’ within the listener.
The idea of ataraxia was put forward by the Greek philosopher Epicurus (341 - 270 BC) - and has a number of translations - including “equanimity” and “lucid calm”. It is not the calm of a soporific - it is not a drug or a tranquilliser - but a calm of meditative insight - clarity of mind - and thoughtful creativity. It is the calm of lucid heightened awareness.
I regard many of my compositions as forms of technological meditation. They are not - of course - a replacement for meditation or prayer in the formal sense - but - hopefully - create a musical context that inspires - and is conducive to - higher-level thinking.
Once a piece is done and released, do you find it important that listeners understand it in a specific way? How do you deal with “misunderstandings?”
In general - music is often considered an abstract art form because it doesn't directly represent or depict tangible objects - people - or scenes in the way that visual art - like painting or sculpture - often does. Instead - music conveys meaning - emotion - and ideas through sound - structure - and rhythm. This abstract nature allows for a wide range of interpretations and emotional responses, - making music deeply subjective and open to personal experience.
With regards to my own work - my compositions are deliberately abstract in an austere and reductionist way. For myself - existence is its own meaning - and the only meanings of my compositions are the sounds - tones - and chords that are heard. Likewise - Kazimir Malevich’s painting ‘Black Square’ (1915) is just what it is - a black square - but there have been hundreds of papers - articles - and books written about it - both interpretations and mis-interpretations - which all somehow miss the point.
When my compositions are published and released into the public domain - then I lose all control of what people think about the music. They either get it - or they don’t. And there is not very much that I can do to change their perceptions or feelings about the work.
Sound, song, and rhythm are all around us, from animal noises to the waves of the ocean. What, if any, are some of the most moving experiences you've had with these non-human-made sounds? In how far would you describe them as “musical”?
I think that ‘music’ - and the composing of it - is a purely human activity - and that sounds from animals are mainly functional and practical in intent. There are alarm calls - territory calls - songs (which are also used to mark territory) - and songs and sounds to create a bond between the members of a herd or a flock (notice how finches keep ‘twittering’ to each other.)
I am lucky to live near the New Forest national park - which is a large area of forests - woods - bogs - and open moorland in the South East of England:
I spend a least two full days a week hiking in the woods and open moorland - and I get to see - and hear - lots of different animals - and have have learnt about their many different patterns of behaviour. The list is extensive - but I like how blackbirds sing when it is raining - especially in the spring and summer. And robins sing in the winter when it is cold. There are the territory calls of cuckoos - and the territory ‘drumming’ of woodpeckers - both in the spring. And in the autumn - during the rutting season - there are the mating calls (bellowing) of the stags.
When I am walking though the forest I am aware that I am disturbing and frightening the animals - and there are alarms calls from blackbirds - woodpeckers - and herons - as they take flight in front of me. Where I live I often hear owls calling at night - and also the ‘yelping’ of foxes. And during the day there are lots of small birds such as wrens - finches - and blue tits - with their songs - and the larger birds of the corvid family - such as rooks - carrion crows - magpies - and jays - who at different times of the day make quite a bit of collective noise.
While It is all very inspiring and interesting - and certainly great to hear these sounds — I would not regard them as music as such.
Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?
Mundane tasks are just that - mundane - and mundane tasks are not examples of higher level thinking. Anyone is quite capable of making a good cup of coffee - but not anyone can compose a great symphony of any other enduring work of art.
Composing is a higher level activity - and is not on the same level as making an apple pie - no matter how good the apple pie might be. Work created from high level thinking endures through time - and often become ‘timeless’. The compositions of Thomas Tallis have endured for four hundred years - the music of Bach for three hundred - the music of Beethoven and Schubert for two hundred - and the music of Schoenberg and Webern for one hundred years. This is work of lasting value.
For everything else - then time will tell.
What is a music related question that you would like to ask yourself – and what's your answer to it?
An important question that I asked myself some time ago - was ‘is it possible to compose experimental music based on the tonal system of the Western (Occidental) music tradition? For the music to be centred around tones - was exclusive of sound or noise - and was to be produced by digital means within the context of new computer-based technologies.
It was also important for the music to be original and unique - to be the output of an individual voice that was independent of current trends or fashions in the musical world. With regards to originality - the composer John Cage said ‘if there are two people making the same kind of music, then that’s one person too many’. I have endeavoured to not be the ‘one person too many’ - and to create experimental tone-based music that is different from music of the past - but at the same time to creates links to the past and acknowledge the importance of my musical predecessors.
In many ways I feel that I have achieved the gaols that were set out and outlined in my original question - and the answers can be heard in all the music that I have produced since 2010.
