zen and the fluent music

["loop.pool" <looppool@cruzio.com>]

Timothy Mungenast wrote:
"Another interesting letter, Kris. Although I love what I have heard of 
your 
stuff, your story  reminds me of how many other people's pieces intrigued 
me 
with their written descriptions and interviews with their composers, but 
when I heard the actual music, it did not resonate with me in the least. 
(No, I'm not talking about anybody on the list, guys and gals!) There's a 
lot of stuff that sounds good in theory only."


Yeah, I agree, Tim!      I have to say that I love the things that John 
Cage 
wrote about and loved his use of chance in music.   I have a first 
edition, 
signed copy of "Silence" and it is one of my heirlooms (though I don't 
have 
an heir........<weak smile>)   but quite frankly,   I actually
enjoy very little of his actual music.  For some reason it just doesn't 
float my boat.  One of my favorite things he did was the piece for toy 
piano 
and it doesn't even use any randomness in it.

About how we think about music and it's process versus what the audience 
'gets':

I liken it to a Shakespearian actor:    The audience will judge a 
performance of 'Hamlet' based on what they see the actor actually portray, 
completely irregardless of what method the actor has chosen;  what schools 
of acting he/she has attended; whether he/she was happy, sad, fighting an 
IRS audience, getting over food poisoning  or what have you.

I think it is natural for musicians to want people to understand the hard 
work and planning and investment that have gone into our music but I think 
95% of all audiences not only don't get it:  they don't really care.

At the same time when you buy a bagel and a cup of coffee from a young 
worker in the morning
you probably don't think about how they had to eschew partying the night 
before so they could set there alarm clock in time to take the bus to get 
there to serve you. You just make a note of how they treat you, whether 
they 
are helpful or not and what the bagel and coffee taste like.

In a wierd way, I think we have to let go of our performances the second 
they are put out there.
As someone just said if the reactions of people weren't important in live 
looping then why would we go to the considerable effort to load the car, 
drive to the venue, load in, sound check, eat dinner at a place we would 
normally not eat at, do the gig, break down, load back into the car, drive 
home and load the car back into the garage?   Wow,  I'm tired just 
describing that process,  lol.
portrays