Re: creativity

["r. dennis" <tonobung@panix.com>]

i think alban berg used some
stuff like this - spelling out his
friends' names in compositions & the like...

course, you could always simply pick
up an instrument you've never played
before... but you'd have to pretend
you'd never heard it either!

rbrt

On Mon, 24 Apr 2000, David Petrozzi wrote:

> > Something is missing though. I know what it is. I've lost
> > that feeling of exploration.
> 
> 
> I suggest reading about the creative approaches of Brian Eno, John Zorn, 
>and
> Iannis Xenakis, respectively.  These three have been very inspirational 
>for
> me.  Creativity (maybe paradoxically) is something I read a lot about.  
>In
> an effort to get others creative juices flowing, I suggest we each share
> some creative techniques that we regularly employ:
> 
> 1. graphs
>     -when I feel limited in a particular piece I'll often work from a 
>graph.
> for instance, my ambient project used to play a chart of stock market
> returns over the past 50 years.  very fun!  we would "notate" the graph 
>with
> colors for moods (blue=sad, red=intense, green=layered, etc) and indicate
> how long (length of time) each section would roughly take.  some great
> results with this one.
> 
> 2. musical personalities
>     -each person in the group takes on a musical personality.  e.g. "It 
>is
> 2030 and you're playing in the hottest reggae-goth club in New York City.
> Your fans view you as a cultural icon but you live a reckless and
> overindulgent life.  You've been tripping for three years since 
>biologically
> altering your DNA in a dark alley surgery--merely on a dare from a 
>friend.
> These past couple weeks, you've begun to regret this decision.  Your
> childhood hero was Bach and you love playing Perfect 5ths."  This one is 
>a
> lot of fun.  I think Eno uses this as well.
> 
> 3. game pieces: like John Zorn's "Cobra"
>     -games give people an excuse to act in a way they normally wouldn't 
>are
> perfect for breaking musical habits.  Currently, my project is 
>experimenting
> with elaborate signaling according to the rigid rules of Zorn's game 
>pieces.
> I think we've grown enormously since we started this one.
> 
> 
> Now your turn!
> ~dp
> 
>