This or That.

[luka]

questions to ask when encountering music.
what movements and manners does it map out? what elegances does it encode? what excellencies?
what sophistications of understanding and attainment?
what does it aspire to?
what is the good life?
how is time structured? and what pace does it move at? what does it feel like to be in a body moving at that tempo, and in that rhythm? is this a fairground ride or is it otherwise?
can you imagine talking like that? walking like that? feeling like that? where is the weight centred? are you light on the feet? marching?
do you not like it? what is it to not like it? what is causing the discomfort?
do you like it? what is it doing to you that feels good? why does it feel good?
is it redolent of an era? which era? what is it that ties it to its time? or what is it about its time that is preserved within it?
a comportment? a psychological attitude? a bearing towards the world? how is that enacted in the music?

what motions does it describe?

what is the sound of an army marching in lockstep?

and how does an army march? with the shoulders and the hips rigid, square on, with arms held straight, up, down, left, right,
left, right, with the rhythm a metronome. movement in one dimension.

so then if we look at some of reynolds descriptors from the article

jittery, irregular, ooze, skippy, springheeled, fluid, undulant,

what is the straight line what is the curve?
why is Anna Livia Plurabelle a river?

the straight line of abstract thought. the imposition of will. the square of the freemasons. the square of blake's newton

urizen. the border. the limit. the defensive wall. the roman road. the army marching in lockstep. crowley's phallic thrust.

the phallic action thrust

the phallic thrust of spear. the projectiles flight to target. the grid.

not ready to let go of this yet sorry.

 

[luka]

some of you might have seen flavour wheels before.

 

[sadmanbarty]

(reformatted for clarity)

questions to ask when encountering music:

what movements and manners does it map out? what elegances does it encode? what excellencies?

what sophistications of understanding and attainment?

what does it aspire to?

what is the good life?

how is time structured? and what pace does it move at? what does it feel like to be in a body moving at that tempo, and in that rhythm? is this a fairground ride or is it otherwise?

can you imagine talking like that? walking like that? feeling like that? where is the weight centred? are you light on the feet? marching?

do you not like it? what is it to not like it? what is causing the discomfort?

do you like it? what is it doing to you that feels good? why does it feel good?

is it redolent of an era? which era? what is it that ties it to its time? or what is it about its time that is preserved within it?

a comportment? a psychological attitude? a bearing towards the world? how is that enacted in the music?

what motions does it describe?

 

[sadmanbarty]

you've got two options for how this thread goes. all posters have to engage in it, it's too universal no to.

Option 1:

Rolling thread in which different dissensians take turns posting some music everyday and people answer Luka’s (or the following) questions:

What kind of movement/physicality is the music evoking?

How does it affect your perception of space and time?

How does it engage each of your five senses?

What kind of emotional state is it aspiring to?

What social outlook/context is it eliciting?

Anthropomorphise the music; who is it? What does it feel like to be them?

What imagery does it conjure?

How is it arousing all those responses in you?



Option 2:

A discussion about music evokes movements, emotions, shapes, class, colors, textures, attitudes, imagery etc. Really get deep into the components of it. Give examples; close readings like in literature.

 

[luka]

thanks barty!

 

[CORP$EY]

You've mentioned Blake, which is the cracked window I'm going to shove some Milton through

'He through the armed Files
Darts his experienc't eye, and soon traverse
The whole Battalion views, thir order due,
Thir visages and stature as of Gods, [ 570 ]
Thir number last he summs. And now his heart
Distends with pride, and hardning in his strength
Glories...'

The proud erection of the macho fascist. (The Nazi/Roman salute a good example of this fetishism of stiff/straight lines)

Are we to hold various songs/choons under this evaluative microscope and see what happens?

An interesting one that's just popped into my head is funk - funk basslines - both stiff and supple, a music theorist would have to tell you how. Masculine sexuality, even militant.

 

[luka]

i scribbled down those questions when i was listening to a song which made me think of a ballroom and that slow, controlled, graceful dancing, that atmosphere which to us seems airless and stifling.

there's a prescribed diction there, in the poetic sense. a range of motion which is appropriate and permitted, that excludes a whole host of other movements.

and again, this diction, is a diction of restraint and self-control, (among other things) so there are social attitudes encoded there, cultural values.

 

[luka]

attitudes to what is permitted in the public eye as opposed to what is expected to be kept behind closed doors.
a kind of discretion.

 

[luka]

so to draw in what corpseys saying, a funk bassline typically struts, there's a peacocking display you dont get with the jazz record which reminded me of a formal ballroom. and so a very different attitude and way of presenting the self and interacting with others.

 

[luka]

the movements are jerkier, syncopated, more violent, but it's a controlled and stylised violence

 

[luka]

both musics could serve as soundtracks for courtship, both musics are dance music, primarily, but how different they are, and how much is opened up by comparing the two.

 

[CORP$EY]

As I get older the more time I spend listening to music as I'm sitting or lying down. Walking is about as physically active as it gets most of the time.

This probably explains why most of the time I listen to classical music these days, which doesn't tend to be designed for dancing, much less fucking.

Actually perhaps this is one of the explanatory factors behind the alleged rise in popularity of ambient music (other thread)? A population that can listen to music all the time, and most of the time are sitting or lying down or walking?

edit: also music is less and less a physical 'thing' now - no physical object its tied to, no packaging, often no instruments involved...

 

[CORP$EY]

Listened to an interview with Eno recently - he was talking about how Tony Visconti never sits down in the studio, and that's where most producers go wrong, they sit down

But I think what he meant was they get too relaxed and lazy about things

 

[CORP$EY]

so to draw in what corpseys saying, a funk bassline typically struts, there's a peacocking display you dont get with the jazz record which reminded me of a formal ballroom. and so a very attitude and way of presenting the self and interacting with others.

yes, the strut!

it annoys me that i couldn't 'see' that mentally and wrote some vague balls about 'stiff and supple'

the jump that i don't make is to picture the physical reaction to/and embodied in it

 

[luka]

also music is less and less a physical 'thing' now

i have been vaguely considering this and my provisional conclusion so far has been that
it doesn't seem to matter all that much. in that the sound still patterns time and
conditions the body, maps out movements etc despite those sounds not being
created by movements of the body.

but it must change things, to some degree, in some aspect

 

[luka]

i always remember blowing into a mouth organ or something, a long time ago
and being startled at how much information it gave away. the fact of being linked to breath
and lung, i could hear the wheeze, the tiredness, the tentativeness, the state of both
body and mind, just in one cautious parp

i think as you get used to the instrument you can learn to lie, to put on a face
but not being familiar with it i completely gave myself away and the truth fell out

 

[CORP$EY]

yeah i don't really care if music involves 'real' instruments or not

otoh with e.g. jungle there's a difference in hearing a drum break, there's definitely a physicality to that sound, you can 'see' it being played by a drummer, and an urge i've always felt at least to air-drum along with an amen/think that i don't get with electronic drums

by contrast you can't possibly imagine a human 'playing' a 303 acid line

but acid house, and a 303 line, can be a potent creator of physical reactions, can be very sexy/sleazy

 

[luka]

there is a difference definitely. and a lot of the
effects you get from digital music rely on
you reading it as a movement. i suppose there
is still a kind of movemeent and compresed
molecules and buffeted air and the vibrations
of the tympanic membrane etc

 

[luka]

you might also have a music designed to lift you out of the body
entirely, either into trance, or into the sphere of disembodied
cerebation

 

[luka]

i wrote this early last year. i dont know if it helps

Within the infinite shadings of tension and release, will and surrender. The inbreath is a sucking at the nipple. Warm, enveloping, humid, close, hot colours, oranges, reds, CARNATION PINK. This is the erotic world of everlasting delight. Squirming, sliding, very lovely and lubricious. BOTH MEANINGS INTENDED.

Yet! When I asked them, who is the puppeteer who pulls the strings? Who is behind the RED VELVET CURTAIN? I arrived instantaneously in a White, bright, Nordic bath house, mind was very clear with the white steady flame of Intellect. THERE ARE OTHER WORLDS.