Music Without Goals
Posted by Concert List | Posted in Uncategorized, live music, online music | Posted on 06-07-2009
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I really love improvisations that go nowhere. Improvisations where there is no goal… just an impulse to follow emotions in the current moment.
In fact, some have described this type of music as self-indulgent – a type of musical fantasy world where the focus is more on the band than the listener.
Of course, this isn’t the case at all. You see, the majority of us are used to having our music wrapped up in wonderful neat little packages. we aren’t used to actually listening to music. we expect an “emotional experience” right away. and it better happen in 3-4 minutes or else.
Take Japanese Shakahuachi music for example. For those of you who do not know, the shakahuachi is a Japanese flute. It’s beautiful sound is appreciated by many in the East.
I’ve a few CDs of this music and everytime I listen to them I hear something new. It’s as if each time the CD is played I hear it for the 1st time. It never gets old. Why? Because of the absence of musical form!
There isn’t much for the mind to grasp or hold onto. Repetition of musical phrases is almost non existent. Instead, all of us get music without goals!
If the re is a goal at all, it’s that the person performing the music remains in the present while playing. What we hear is the “state of mind” of the artist at the exact time the recording is made.
In one of my own piano pieces “Cirrus,” (listen to it at http – //www.quiescencemusic.com) I do the same thing. and everytime I listen to it, it seems that it’s somehow differ d. Yet the music always remains fresh and pliant – waiting to be discovered again and again.
Having said all of this, I’ve nothing against musical form and the works that come from it. I just think the “other” type of music is just as valid and necessary

