Category: General

It’s been some 10 days now in Krakow… it feels very different here in the Summertime than when I was here a few years ago in the late-Fall, beginings of Winter. Many more people out and about in the main square. I think in some ways I very much preferred it in the colder times as the vastness of the main square was much more apparent then, the atmosphere much quieter. It is perhaps that I’m in a contemplative mood and the austerity of that time was so suitable for the mood I was in then and now.

The city though is as beautiful as I remember it. The warmer weather has been good for sitting in the park that surrounds the main square, and I’ve spent a number of hours there now reading, listening to drafts of music, and writing in my notebook thoughts on music and ideas to try out.

My schedule has largely been the same so far. On the mornings where the weather has been amenable and when I can wake up early enough, I’ve gone out in front of the dorm I am staying at (it doubles as a hotel in the Summer) and do some warmups and tai-chi. I’ve been enjoying that morning time very much, and since having missed doing so this morning, I found very much I’d like not to miss my morning session. I’ve tried to do so in the morning before seven as I find many of the people then are still asleep or just waking up, and that perhaps doing Tai-Chi at the time won’t be too much noticed. I still feel a little strange about working on sword form in the morning, so have tried to find a good place for that. There are still many days ahead here, so perhaps it’s all just a matter of finding a good place to do my practice in the morning.

The mornings so far have been spent in my room, working away on music, counterpoint exercises, programming blue, and reading. The work goes well at this time as the bulk of the students and hotel guests are gone to their classes or left for the day. The windows of my room face the East, so if the sun is out the room can get quite warm. The table I am sitting at and working is adjacent to the window, so if the sun is shining I close the curtains to work, which I’d much rather prefer not to have to do as I like to look outside to the green lawn and trees which are adjacent to the building. Otherwise, the quietness and situation has been very ideal for work.

Lunch–as most meals–are with Lisa, which is great to spend time daily with each other. ^_^

After lunch I have been spending time in and around the main center. I seem to have found myself a spot in the park that surrounds the main square that I am fond of, and I have been bringing books, music, notebooks, etc. there to do some contemplative work. Today, I listened to interviews with Feldman while sitting and enjoying the beautiful park, and finding myself with that rare opportunity (well, rare at least in how I’ve found my life as of late) just to sit and listen and to think. More on Feldman in another post…

Dinners with Lisa have been very enjoyable; at first we mainly stayed at the cafeteria, but after a week we started to explore some restaurants in town, mainly going to many which I had been to in my first time in Krakow, which I enjoyed every bit this time as last.

The evenings have been mostly filled with continuing the work from the morning, having had the afternoon’s time to review and consider. An electric kettle and tea or instant coffee usually accompanies the evening at some time, and work goes well. The students have been somewhat loud in the evenings when we first arrived, but that seems to have died down a bit. (I noticed signs today that “Quiet Hours” are now from 11:00pm to 6:00am as there have been complaints by people trying to sleep; I was very happy to see these signs. =) )

The evening turns into night, the day finishes and I fall asleep to start the cycle once again. Thus far it’s all gone mostly well, and a feeling of satisfaction greets each night and morning.

^_^

So I have been working at the same company for the past two and a half years, at the same office at Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco. In all that time, I had always thought to walk to the end of the pier which surrounds Aquatic Park, but had never gone and done so. This morning, before leaving the apartment, I had decided that today would be the day I would go.

After a longer than expected meeting during lunch, I took a little time back at my desk working on StaffPad before leaving the office for my small adventure. Going downstairs and getting a tall Americano, I proceeded to head towards the edge of the square and on to the pier. It was beautiful out today, a clear, wonderfully blue sky, the wind rustling, feeling fresh, alive. By the time I had gotten halfway down the pier my Americano was at a very good sipping temperature, a perfect foil to the cool gusts of wind that surrounded me.

As I got to the end of the pier, I looked back at where I had come from, back to Ghirardelli Square, and thought to myself how much further it seemed away than I had thought it would be. Looking around I saw the Golden Gate Bridge from a view I had never taken, Alcatraz was closer than I had seen before, and I noticed details on the old sailing ship that I was never quite aware of.

Surrounded by water, the sun shining down, I noticed that the wind was so loud that it drowned out all the other sounds with its noise. A deafening silence, sips of warm coffee, a slow walk back down the pier. By the time I had gotten back to the beginning of the pier I had finished my Americano, ready now to return back to the office, a cool breeze and a warm smile.

So simple, how twenty minutes can make all the difference…

I’ve been working in a different direction lately in my music. It’s been very interesting and exciting for me to explore this sound world as it’s really something I feel like I could only truly explore now as my tools –blue and my orchestral composition library–have recently developed to allow such work to even happen. (I don’t think I could use these musical techniques with any other musical tools, or at least, in a way that is as intuitive as it is with blue.)

I had been looking into music by Penderecki and thinking of Xenakis as well in trying to get some ideas, but yesterday I thought to start listening to Scelsi once again and immediately found myself incredibly drawn to his music. The sound of his music is absolutely fresh and alive, so rich in its motion, its undulations, its breathing… I remember reading something Xenakis said in regards to working with sounds that were alive, and yesterday reading Scelsi’s comments on sound in a similar spirit, makes me think a lot about the ideas and sounds in the music I’m working on now.

For a long time I’ve been very influenced by Feldman’s music, the sheer beauty of its delicate fabric of sound, as well as in the construction and technique of his pieces. A great deal of my thought has been invested in contemplating his music. Yet, I had always found a great deal in many other composers’ music, music of a very different nature, such as Crumb, or Scelsi, or Messiaen. I have drawn on many of these composers ideas, but I have felt that it was very difficult to get experience with a number of their techniques, and therefore, difficult to truly understand the taste and flavor of these techniques. I think now that it is possible, I will continue to explore this path and see what comes from it all, if these techniques will end up really becoming my own.

Another story my father told me last week was one about his uncle(I’ll call him grand-uncle from here), who in his 50’s, was having problems with his stomach. After going to a Western doctor, he was diagnosed with stomach cancer, something at the time some 20 or 30 years ago was almostly certainly fatal. After having heard the news, my grand-uncle went to go see a chi-kung master. When he went into the man’s office, the man was sitting there with his assistants around him. Before my grand-uncle even said anything, the healer, some 10 feet away, told him he had a problem with his stomach. The man then proceeded to concentrate with his hand up towards my grand-uncle, some 10 feet away. He said that he had felt a very warm, even hot sensation grow within his stomach. When had gotten home that day, he told the whole family about his experience, and that his stomach was feeling a lot better. After a few more times going back to him, my grand-uncle didn’t have any more problems with his stomach and never did again.

While in Georgia last week, I stopped by the Buford Highway Farmer’s Market to shop for some food with my mother. While we were there, we stopped by a kiosk inside where handmade dumplings were made. Now, these were really something else, the quality of the dumpling really in a class of its own. The man who made them–a real professional, an artist really–explained to me quite a bit about his dumplings. He had been a dumpling maker in South Korea for years and had moved to America a few years ago. I had mentioned to him that I was a fan of Chinese dumplings, to which he mentioned that he used to make pork dumplings in Korea, but that the quality of pork in America was so bad that he wouldn’t make them anymore here. He also showed me one of his dumpling wrappers, stretching and stretching away without the slightest tear, and afterwards putting it on top of the back of my hand to show me how smooth it was. Amazing! I was invited to pull on the wrapper as well and was amazed at the quality of it.

The dumpling he did make had absolutely no fat in them as well as were made with three different types of mushrooms amongst other things. He cooked them in a very unique way of having boiled water put in a large bowl and dropping the dumplings within it, then after a little time getting them out with a strainer spoon.

The end result was an absolutely fantastic handmade dumpling! It was really something to experience, both the dumplings and the man. It’s really quite startling to see someone who really is a master of his or her craft doing their work, showing such an obvious mastery and passion at what they do. I was really humbled by it all. Perhaps one day, with many more compositions under my belt, that sort of mastery over musical material will manifest itself. I can only continue working and find out.

^_^

Warning: If you’re interested in nasal irrigation, please do research the topic before trying. I’m not a doctor, just a person with a story to tell.

Last week my father told me an amazing story. For as long as I’ve known, my father has had issues with his sinuses and allergies, with even some 5 or 6 years ago getting surgery to try to alleviate the issue(that only helped for a short period of time). He told me last week that he actually had a great fear of dying by suffocation from his sinus issues, as he had been suffering from these sinus issues since he was a kid in Korea, some forty to fifty years by my estimate.

Well, while we were at home we were talking about the health benefits of salt water and ways it could be used, discussing bamboo salt in particular, when we go on to the topic of nasal irrigation with salt water. Now, this is a practice I’ve heard of, usually with a neti pot, where one flushes the sinuses with salt water, but the way my father did it was a little different, using both nostrils for getting the water in and allowing the water to drain out either the nose or to the mouth and spitting it out.

He said he had heard of and tried salt water a few times before in his life but only doing it once or twice and thinking it didn’t do much. About a couple of months ago, though, my mother had told him of a patient she saw that had sworn by the salt water irrigation as curing his sinus ailments (he said he had used a gallon of water at a time, which my father thought was probably a bit of an exaggeration). The story was enough to pique his interest in it once again, but this time he had determined that he would really give it a concerted effort, to do it “religiously” as he said. After two weeks of irrigating daily, he told me that his sinuses were clear, that he could breathe freely, and that his allergies were mostly gone, and have been the past two months.

Incredible, dealing with something that affected the quality of his life for such a long time, he was able to be cured with such an amazingly simple solution. I’m so happy and relieved that he’s breathing freely and no longer has that to worry about.

^_^

A couple of nights ago, Lisa and I saw Dear Frankie, a beautifully touching film, and while walking home we were discussing how wonderfully the characters developed through out the movie. As we walked, my thoughts drifted toward how characters are presented within the framework of a movie’s storyline, and how the presentation of the characters and the story contribute to the experience of the movie.

In some movies, characters are presented early on in the movie in full. They’re there as the medium by which the story unfolds, the focus centering on the action of the movie. The characters as people take a secondary (if any) importance to the experience, and development of the characters isn’t as much a contributing factor to the experience as what they do within the context of the story.

In other movies I’ve seen, characters are introduced into the story as they are in every day life, with only a hint of who they are, and as the story develops, the details of the person are slowly fleshed out. Who the character is is revealed as the movie progresses, in their actions and reactions to the situation that is the issue of the movie. The actions of the movie serve more then to illuminate and explore the characters; the experience as a whole is synergistic as the situation and the characters illuminate each other.

These characterizations are somewhat towards the ends of the spectrum, with many movies falling somewhere in between, their focus split between the exploration of the characters and the exploration of the story which is the action of the movie.

The movies I’ve found myself appreciating most usually focus very much on the development of the characters. A good story is required for a character to develop well, so that too is a necessity, but I walk away from the movie with a strong sense of who the characters are and how they deal with their situations and might deal with others.

Of these movies I often find that the ones I enjoy are often rooted in reality in some way, whether it be an actual or possible reality(one which that may not be real for me, but one in which I could imagine could be true). The situations of the story touch on the everyday (or at least, something one could imagine happening to oneself or to someone one knows), and the characters themselves are a reflection of what someone sees or can imagine seeing in the people around them.

Perhaps it is not that these experiences are necessarily about or within the context of everday life, but that the experience can be translated and brought into the context of my everyday life…

…I’ve always been fond of the idea that should one find themselves in need of change, that perhaps it is not the environment one must move away from but rather one should move closer to it to observe more closely, such that the desired change is within one’s self. There is fascination there, in the quietness of action in the seeming regularity of the day to day, that upon closer viewing perhaps it’s really not so regular, and that there is a much deeper richness in it all…

Thinking of the movie and the unfolding of these characters brought Feldman’s later music to mind, how his music too has this quality of an exploration of an idea whose character is slowly revealed as the piece continues on. The situation of the music, the interaction of these different musical ideas, illuminates the ideas themselves as they grow together and alone, a synergistic experience. Something very human to these ideas, as if they were all individuals interacting in such a lovely way, and how these ideas develop over time, repeating but not repeating, the motives returning but always altered, bringing with them something new to the group, yet clearly growing from where they themselves came from…

I’ve found Feldman’s music is very much rooted in the every day experience of life, in observing the everyday and finding a simple thing become much more interesting in quiet observation. Like a movie who’s characters are developing in time, the motives within Feldman’s music too develop as the piece progresses, slowly growing and illuminating themselves, their interactions with other motives creating an identifiable experience, yet, without sacrificing the individual idea’s identities.

Thinking of my own music, of where I am and where I’m going, I am once again pondering its relationship to the everyday, and how its own characters are developing in time…

The other day while working on my current piece I decided try out some different tunings as things didn’t quite sound right with the ji_12.scl Scala file I was using. At first, I tried just listening to the piece with regular 12TET to find that it felt really colorless (strange, how I’ve read that before about 12TET, but not until I spent time working otherwise and coming back did I really hear that in the sound). Then switching over to a few other non-12 scale degrees per octave tunings of Wendy Carlos’s, the piece sounded very foreign, but the piece was worked in with 12 tones per octave in mind, so that was more for curiosity than interest.

However, I had for some time had a note to myself to try out Werckmeister III, and so I set the tuning for my blue project to use that scale, and truly, the sound of the tones and harmonies really settled in together and were very rich and brilliant. Lovely! In some ways I find that I still don’t know the quirks of this tuning and it’s still not quite yet in my ear, but I’ve found it very satisfying thus far. I’m looking very forward to further work on the piece and getting to know this sound.

^_^

Last week, I finished reading The Art of Happiness at Work, a book by the Dalai Lama and psychologist Howard C. Cutler. I found a great deal many ideas in the book valuable in keeping things in perspective. Many of the ideas weren’t new to me, but reading them again and getting the ideas fresh were well worthwhile.

One of the sections that most grabbed my attention was the section discussing the pyschological state of flow, or being in a flow state. The description involved being in a state so focused that the person is unaware of the passage of time, that they were completely absorbed in what they were doing. Further reading through the chapter, I found it remarkably describing many of the very things which I am looking for in music (whether it be my own or other’s). A topic which I will certainly investigate further.

Altogether, a fantastic read. A friend of mine from work loaned me The Art of Happiness, the first book of this series. After reading the introduction, I am looking forward to spending time with this book as well.

The San Francisco Public Library is a fantastic resource for music, be it scores, texts, or recordings. Yesterday I stopped by to return some scores and pick up some books I had looked for online, picking a number of Lou Harrison CD’s as well as Gustave Frederic Soderlund’s “Direct Approache to Counterpoint in the 16th Century”. Reading the book today, I came across a passage that really struck me: one of the things he discusses doing as part of the recommended exercises is to notate the exercise both with and without barlines. I had looked at early scores before, both with and without barlines, but for some reason when looking at it today that there was something more there when looking at examples shown both with and without barlines. In the music without barlines, the line’s contour and structure seemed so much clearer than that with the barlines. In reading and humming along, I really did feel as if the line was more free, that somehow reading it without the imposition of a larger metrical structure gave the experience of performing it a sense of freedom and cohesion of the line as a whole.

I always did find the issue of notating musical ideas particularly tricky, in how to represent the idea as it is and balancing that with notating the idea in a way that would best make sense to a performer. Back in college, I remember spending quite some time before finally settling on a method of using unmetereed music that contained bars only when necessary for helping synchronize music between performers (largely inspired my Messiaen’s Piano writing). I had found that this made the music the most performable for the ideas, but it was always tedious to notate and I was never satisfied with how foreign the written form was compared to the sonic one. For example, taking a motive that was originally straight eighth notes, then repeating but using two quintuplet quarter-notes for every eight note, so starting on the upbeat would then require notating in quintuplet eight notes to get the idea into something somewhat performable, but how daunting that appeared, when really it was just a motive slightly augmented and translated in time…

One of the primary reasons I created blue was so that I could do these types of freely breathing transformations of motives and have them so that the visual representation could maintain the essence of the musical structure and display them in a way that would make the form of the music transparent. In some ways, after all this time, certain aspects of blue’s visual feedback still do not do enough, but on the whole, that goal has been achieved. The musical ideas are written as if without bar lines, the sounds freely moving, the idea transparent, all together in the same space, breathing in time…