Concert List

I really love improvisations that go nowhere. Improvisations where there is no goal… just an impulse to follow feelings in the current moment.
In fact, some have described this kind of music as self-indulgent – a kind of musical fantasy world where the focus is more on the artist than the listener.
Of course, this isn’t the case at all. You see, most of us are used to having our music wrapped up in good 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 is beautiful sound is appreciated by a lot of in the East.
I’ve several compact discs of this music and everytime I listen to them I hear something new. It is as if each time the compact disc  is played I hear it for the first 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 al most non existent. Instead,  we  get music without goals!
If the re is a goal at all, it is that the individual 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 is 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 virtually nothing against musical form and the works that come from it. I just think the “other” kind of music is just as valid and necessary