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Choosing to be a musician can
lead to financial disaster and social bankruptcy!
This page recounts on a small number only of the
many inspirations which informed this choice and
made it an attractive option or even an imperative
and it mentions some of the people whose work helps
me uphold still that what I chose to do is to deal
with the most essential subject known to man. |
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Pythagoras
of Samos (6th-5th c. BC) |
Pythagoras is thought of
as the most important musical thinker of all
time by some and mythical prophet of organised
sound by others. In any case, the name is
identified with such rapid development of
music theory that has never been matched in
density and scale since and that presents
with an inspiring example to follow.
Read more at:
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Pythagoras.html
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Pérotin
(13th c. AD) |
More an ideal than actual
figure, Perotin was the first to delve into
four-part polyphony and divide the acoustic
spectrum into four regions, with implications
still felt today, inspiring with his clarity
of vision, freshness of approach and above
all with the music itself.
http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/perotin.html
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Leonardo
da Vinci (1452-1519) |
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The prototype creative
man and inventor of new ideas – also
possibly the inventor of the modern bicycle!
http://www.mos.org/leonardo/
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J.S. Bach (1675-1750) |
I have no words, but Beethoven
found some that portray Bach accurately: "The
immortal God of Harmony”.
http://www.jsbach.org
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L.van
Beethoven (1770-1827) |
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What to say; when we listen
to Beethoven we “feel and know that
we are eternal” in the words of Spinoza.
Or in the words of my niece Stella (aged 2
½) upon hearing Beethoven’s 5th
symphony for the first time: “What lovely
clatter!”
http://www2.sjsu.edu/depts/beethoven/
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Erik Satie
(1866-1925) |
Satie is often misunderstood
for a tea-break, Classic FM creature; his
Dadaist, iconoclastic attitude to music making
was genuinely and prototypically eccentric.
I always go to reading him and listening to
his music when conformity and monotony appear
to flirt with my pencil. There are two banners
over my piano: One reads Arbeit Macht Frei
and the other is a quote by Satie: Which do
you prefer? Music or Ham?
http://www.af.lu.se/~fogwall/satie.html
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Pablo
Casals (1876-1973) |
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Casals is an inspiration
for his recordings but for his words too.
One of his mottos is always on my mind: “I
want you to be young, young all your life,
and to say things to the world that are true”.
more of and on Casals at:
http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Casals-Pablo.htm
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Béla
Bartók (1881-1945) |
Bluebeard’s castle
is the greatest opera of all time –
the six string quartets are some of the greatest
music of all time and the piano music has
redefined and reinvented the instrument in
an unprecedented way. Any objections, e-mail
me!
http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/bartok.html
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Alois Hába
(1893-1973) |
One of the most neglected
composers of the twentieth century and one
of the earliest advocates of microtonal music
for the concert hall. Hába influenced
a number of composers from around the world,
including Cage, Zappa and my good self!
http://www.musica.cz/comp/haba.htm
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Maurits
Cornelis Escher (1898-1972)) |
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The work of the Dutch graphic
artist has actually been a model of mine for
writing contrapuntal music.
You can read and look at more at:
http://www.mcescher.com/
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Olivier Messiaen
(1908-1992) |
“In my hours of gloom,
when I am suddenly aware of my own futility,
when every musical idiom - classical, oriental,
ancient, modern and ultramodern - appears
to me as no more than admirable, painstaking
experimentation, without any ultimate justification,
what is left to me but to seek out the true,
lost face of music somewhere off in the forest,
in the fields, in the mountains or on the
seashore, among the birds?”
http://www.oliviermessiaen.org/
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György
Sándor Ligeti (1923 - 2006) |
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Alfred Brendel has famously
said that one needs ‘three or five hands
to play Ligeti’. I think two hands are
enough, but you certainly need a couple of
extra brains to react to the music sufficiently
in both intellectual and emotional terms,
which is what makes his compositions so elusive,
attractive and categorically inspiring. Ligeti
writes of/with/in extremes, thus eliminating
the idea of a framed/contextualised music;
his work is the rare and seminal paradigm
of connecting perception and expression in
contemporary art.
More at: http://www.braunarts.com/ligeti/
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Earvin ‘Magic’
Johnson (1959-) |
‘Magic’ “transposed”
a lot of the time when he played, you never
knew which way he was going. When a piece
goes nowhere, I watch a video of Magic’s
Lakers and I find my way back into musical
motion!
more about ‘Magic’ at: http://www.magicjohnson.org/ |
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Electronic
music (MM AD - ) |
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The history of electronic
music is extremely long and rich. Right now
my influences are the talented electronic
composers I work with: Felipe Otondo and Judith
Ring.
A good guide with many links can be found
at:
http://www.obsolete.com/120_years/
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Commercial
music (?-?) |
The supermarket section;
you cannot feed on good food only, it’s
not healthy! Awkward to confess, but I did
initially choose to be a musician because
of aspiring to be like my early life musical
heroes. A few international names that played
a decisive role and whose music I still listen
to gladly: Soft Machine, Weather Report, Camel,
Joni Mitchell, Soundgarden and then the list
gets really long and silly…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_music
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Experimental
music (never) |
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Can music be an experiment?
My personal answer is a simple no but then
there are always exceptions to a rule. I can
think of three exceptional exceptions that
have influenced my music: Meredith Monk, Roland
Kirk and Sergei Kuryokhin.
http://www.users.waitrose.com/~chobbs/jems.html
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