Many define “jazz” as the meeting of African rhythms and European harmonies. In a sense, this narrative is accurate – if you remove the influence of the church, songs of the field, or cues from the homeland – the form would cease to exist. But, in another sense, this effort to identify broad sources subjugates […]
The process of mining – digging deep into the earth to find an essential material – dates back at least forty-three thousand years. However, the process was not modernized until the adoption of rail in the 1550s. Carts would accumulate the laborers’ findings and move them to the surface. Two centuries later, James Watt used […]
Far too often, people tend to compartmentalize and localize matters of concern. However, such an approach minimizes the true scale of what is before us. Only in perceiving the big picture of an issue can truly substantive and meaningful reform occur. As one example, slavery in America and its vestiges are frequently removed from the […]
In the late 1850s, two decades before Thomas Edison’s phonograph, French inventor Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville created the first sound recording device. In the generations since, the interrelation between recorded sound and new creation have continually been a matter of great controversy. When recorded music first emerged, many musicians became dismayed that it would end […]
Western literature has long noted the disconnection between perception and reality. In 1175, French monk Alain de Lille “Do not hold everything gold that shines like gold.” Geoffrey Chaucer and William Shakespeare carried this thought through The Canterbury Tales (1387-1400) and The Merchant of Venice (1596-1598), respectively. Now, centuries later, the division of what seems […]
We continue our conversation with Fred Frith (read part one here) with a focus on his work with homemade instruments, specifically his duo with Sudh Tewari, Normal. PostGenre: A little earlier, you mentioned how you put aside the guitar for a few years in the early 1980s. What led to your stepping away from the […]
When first learning about music, students are often taught to classify instruments by their sound. In the abstract, this basic exercise appears helpful. Woodwind reeds will inevitably produce a different tone than one can get on a brass mouthpiece. Tapping fingers on a string will likely not sound close to that produced by the same […]
Far too often, history is perceived through a lens of minimizing the problems of the present. According to George Santayana, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Or to Edmund Burke, “People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors.” But while the lessons learned from […]
Pablo Picasso once noted that “Without great solitude, no serious work is possible.” In music, artists can converse in ways often words alone cannot. But there is also a great power in being alone. This power is known well by Jessica Pavone. Across her two decades of live performances and unaccompanied albums, the violist has […]
As artificial intelligence increasingly disrupts our ordinary lives, there is an ongoing concern about how the new technology will impact music. In an industry in which its chief creators are already economically suppressed, it is all too easy to envision a future in which algorithms supplant artists. However, as anyone who has listened to significant […]
