proper tunes

[padraig (u.s.)]

in the end yeah it's all grist for proper tunes

the final proper tune is the heat death of the universe

 

[version]

I find some stuff opens the door then makes itself scarce and other stuff opens the door then follows you through it, a lot of noise stuff being the former, someone like Hendrix or Aphex Twin being the latter.

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

have you ever visited a high-end, highly curated art museum and wondered: what infinitesimal % of human creative expression lasts down the ages? is remembered?

 

[version]

have you ever visited a high-end, highly curated art museum and wondered: what infinitesimal % of human creative expression lasts down the ages? is remembered?

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

remember that time in The Odyssey when Thetis asked Achilles if he wanted a swift death + eternal glory, or to live a long fruitful life + be forgotten?

and he was like "proper tunes, bro"

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

yeah that's pretty dope, good look

 

[mvuent]

You can't dodge entropy. It all ends up being proper tunes eventually, doesn't it? You even know what you're going to get from 'experimental' music now. It's become a genre in its own right.

maybe. but I'm not thinking of it as cliched vs. novel--either side can be innovative or not. in the case of licht, making a 48 hour opera that's impossibly (in the most literal sense) grandiose would horrify a proper tunes person. whereas I hear about it and think "that sounds amazing" a classically minded person would think that no good could come of it: making something that long is obviously an insult to the audience rather than a gift. so to me you can identify some tendencies as one or the other regardless of many times they've been done before.

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

he was a weird dude

 

[mvuent]

woah fuck a whole page appeared while I was typing that. im slow.

 

[mvuent]

I find the classical/romantic dichotomy to be confusing

like OK Romanticism valued "authenticity" over basically all, sure

and "proper tunes" is authentic, sure

but then it's also extreme, unknown, whatever vs. classical's restraint and tastefulness?

forget authenticity I don't care about that

I don't know what that quote was from I just googled "classical vs. romantic aesthetics" and thought it vaguely fit

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

making a 48 hour opera that's impossibly (in the most literal sense) grandiose

like when Wagner wrote a million hour long opera cycle that somehow manages to make GERMANIC MYTHOLOGY insufferably dull

but there's like 5 absolutely sublime - in every sense of the word - minutes tucked in where he among other things invents modern ambient music 100 years before Eno

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

tbh I'm still unclear what exactly a proper tune is or isn't

I know intuitively I'm a proper tunes person

but like, what is a proper tune?

 

[version]

Does something extreme become a proper tune if it resonates with you and becomes a favourite?

 

[version]

but like, what is a proper tune?

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

like, are there tunes that are just proper tunes to begin with?

but maybe other things only become proper tunes with the passage of time?

is being a proper tune an inherent quality that does or doesn't reside within something, or can it be acquired?

 

[version]

I'm assuming it's about intent to a degree, like Parmegiani is not proper tunes because it's consciously avant garde and an exercise whereas something like Voodoo Ray is a proper tune because it's first and foremost a tune.

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

Voodoo Ray, undoubtedly, sure

so it's a proper tune, in the sense that is both a tune, proper, and a proper tune

but, was it always?

 

[mvuent]

yeah exactly, it's more about intend and perceived values than formal qualities.

 

[version]

Right. I think we're on the same page now.

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

OK, that's good, intent is very good

I always invoke intent when trying to explain my love for things 4'33" and White On White to people