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harmonyharmony
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« Reply #255 on: 18:45:42, 05-11-2008 » |
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next time I start a piece will you come over and stand behind me for a couple of weeks repeating that, please?
I'm sure we could all do with someone standing behind us who has the advantage of not being up to their eyeballs in whatever it is (composition, portraiture, duvet covers). I'm reminded of the origin of the phrase memento mori  "you appear to be sitting there doing nothing and that's because you are - you might protest that you're just wondering whether it's a good idea to do what you're thinking of doing, but all you're actually doing is waiting until it's too late to think of anything else and it has to be a good idea, or to become one."
 So true.  [edit] added the link above which I forgot the first time round... [/edit] |
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« Last Edit: 22:12:05, 05-11-2008 by harmonyharmony »
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'is this all we can do?' anonymous student of the University of Berkeley, California quoted in H. Draper, 'The new student revolt' (New York: Grove Press, 1965) http://www.myspace.com/itensemble |
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« Reply #256 on: 21:12:23, 05-11-2008 » |
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Why do all my ‘breakthroughs’ feel the same? It’s as if I can never learn the few, basically rather simple rules of thumb that pertain to my ways of composing.
Perhaps your mind resists the idea that your life's work has its basis in a 'method'. I think that resistance is a sign you're in good shape. |
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martle
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« Reply #257 on: 21:47:04, 05-11-2008 » |
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Oh, oh, oh, Turfs. Marry me?  |
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Green. Always green.
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martle
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« Reply #258 on: 22:03:46, 05-11-2008 » |
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Why do all my ‘breakthroughs’ feel the same? It’s as if I can never learn the few, basically rather simple rules of thumb that pertain to my ways of composing.
Perhaps your mind resists the idea that your life's work has its basis in a 'method'. I think that resistance is a sign you're in good shape. Ahem. But seriously. I certainly don't think I have any kind of 'method' - that would be much too strong a word. What it is, I think, is more of an innate way of thinking about tendencies and strategies for musical material in one's work. I think this is what Richard was getting at. Anyway, it's not about ME! Probably all we're describing here is the the common recognition of creative ruts, or habits. I actually think habits can be useful, since they often lead to recognisable and thus potentially identifiable creative hallmarks - the danger being of course that they become, well, habitual in a non-conscious way. Which is boring. |
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Green. Always green.
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thompson1780
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« Reply #259 on: 22:31:40, 05-11-2008 » |
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In my professional capacity I have recently been 'creating' a Pensions Strategy for a large UK Life Insurance Company. [Apologies now for what this will do to the advert game] Essentially, the 'method' was something like this: - Get the request to 'Pull together a strategy' from the director. Have a chat with him and realise that he 'just' wants a way of getting more sales and more profit, without spending a lot of money on changing all the things that are wrong.
- Decide that I'll do a proper and more realistic job anyway.
- Get opinions from lots of people - salesmen, people from the administration ('Customer Service') team, people from marketing, 'Relationship Managers', Research, Product Managers......
- Filter out the w***words and reject anything that is fanciful and devoid of common sense.
- Take the few sentences left and categorise them into 2 or 3 groups. From these few things, construct a common-sense plan for improving sales and profit, even if it means changing quite a few things.
- Start adding back in w***words, so that people might think it is actually a decent piece of work. Because some big bod is bound to feel he has to justify their salary by changing my work, hide all the important points in the apparently easy and insignificant elements of the plan.
Now you know what my day-to-day hell is like....... Tommo |
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Made by Thompson & son, at the Violin & c. the West end of St. Paul's Churchyard, LONDON
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« Reply #260 on: 00:16:26, 06-11-2008 » |
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Oh, oh, oh, Turfs. Marry me? Well, ... I'll consider it. Certainly your eye[s are] to die for. |
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MT Wessel
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« Reply #261 on: 00:54:49, 06-11-2008 » |
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Dear Tommo.
Sounds like you need a change of career. Why not try being an anti-life insurance advisor? I'd suggest something like YouMightAsWellSpendIt.com or perhaps StickItUnderTheMattress.co.uk.
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« Last Edit: 01:01:49, 06-11-2008 by MT Wessel »
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lignum crucis arbour scientiae
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Ruby2
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« Reply #262 on: 14:37:40, 13-11-2008 » |
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Can I borrow this thread for another form of creating? I'm in a painting rut at the moment. I think what's partly caused it was a tricky commission that's brought me to a complete standstill and although I ought to send it back with apologies I don't want to give up on it. A painter friend has just found on online group and his blog is now littered with gushing praise. The trouble is, in order to join said group I want something new to put on mine, but I haven't got enough time at home to turn out anything new and good. (The snail thing the other day was a 45-minute bit of silliness.) I'm now stuck in this spiral whereby every time I see something new that someone else has created while I've not had time to produce anything decent, it's another hammer blow to my morale and I'm now spiralling into this morass of self pity and dejection and utterly convinced that I'm never going to produce anything decent again. The more I try to produce quickly, the worse it is. More demoralisation as another week goes by. Do all 'creative types' suffer from this desperate need for approval? |
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"Two wrongs don't make a right. But three rights do make a left." - Rohan Candappa
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strinasacchi
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« Reply #263 on: 14:44:05, 13-11-2008 » |
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Yes.  |
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Ruby2
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« Reply #264 on: 14:46:51, 13-11-2008 » |
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Yes. Thought so... (footnote: sudden mood lift having discovered 3 new comments on my blog - they were sat in my hotmail waiting for approval! My public love me again! [swish of cloak, toss of hair - exit.]) |
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« Last Edit: 16:11:03, 13-11-2008 by Ruby2 »
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"Two wrongs don't make a right. But three rights do make a left." - Rohan Candappa
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harmonyharmony
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« Reply #265 on: 12:17:55, 15-11-2008 » |
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Do all 'creative types' suffer from this desperate need for approval? It's funny you should post this now. I've just come up with the chordal structure of a new piano piece. Yay me. Except that I don't know if it carries its intended duration. I'm quite happy to listen to it for eleven minutes, but I don't know if that's enough. Every solution I attempt, seems artificial and pasted on. Due to constraints of time, I think I have to go with it as it is, but it feels like I need someone to pat me on the head and say 'that's ok, it's a nice piece'. Nothing I write at the moment feels right. Incidentally, it looks like this:  cotitsalv This is not a cry for affirmation. Well ok, it is. There are pockets of faster paced material, but this is basically how the whole piece works. |
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« Last Edit: 12:45:17, 15-11-2008 by harmonyharmony »
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'is this all we can do?' anonymous student of the University of Berkeley, California quoted in H. Draper, 'The new student revolt' (New York: Grove Press, 1965) http://www.myspace.com/itensemble |
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« Reply #266 on: 18:08:36, 15-11-2008 » |
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Funny, when we're in most desperate need of approval, we are least likely to receive it. But approval unexpected is sweeter than that solicited. Such is life.
Hey HH wouldn't it be cool if you left off the clefs in the middle of systems, which, even tho the staff lines prior are hidden, still read in the correct clef b/c of the symbols leftmost?
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harmonyharmony
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« Reply #267 on: 18:22:07, 15-11-2008 » |
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Hey HH wouldn't it be cool if you left off the clefs in the middle of systems, which, even tho the staff lines prior are hidden, still read in the correct clef b/c of the symbols leftmost?
I don't know. I've seen scores like that and I'm not convinced, but it would give a clearer indication of the connection between the three staves at play. Every notational solution is the residue of a series of failed solutions and compromises. It will also depend on what my pianist thinks. |
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'is this all we can do?' anonymous student of the University of Berkeley, California quoted in H. Draper, 'The new student revolt' (New York: Grove Press, 1965) http://www.myspace.com/itensemble |
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time_is_now
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« Reply #268 on: 18:28:51, 15-11-2008 » |
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Nothing I write at the moment feels right. Maybe that's a good thing, not a bad one. Feels right doesn't always mean is right: there are some fantastically deluded bad composers out there. Every notational solution is the residue of a series of failed solutions and compromises. Or are we all just in love with failure?* Don't listen to me, I'm very depressed at the moment and struggle to do any work of my own. Although funnily, there are shafts of light in which I seem to appreciate the work of friends and acquaintances with a new vision. I had a lovely time listening to Member Johnson's Colophons at lunchtime, which I'd somehow never quite fully appreciated before. ______________ *Remember: There's no success like failure
And failure's no success at all. |
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The city is a process which always veers away from the form envisaged and desired, ... whose revenge upon its architects and planners undoes every dream of mastery. It is [also] one of the sites where Dasein is assigned the impossible task of putting right what can never be put right. - Rob Lapsley
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harmonyharmony
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« Reply #269 on: 18:38:52, 15-11-2008 » |
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Nothing I write at the moment feels right. Maybe that's a good thing, not a bad one. Yes. Partly I think that it's just discomfort with change. I've always been drawn to a statement by Nigel Osborne from Paul Griffiths' book of interviews, in which he says something along the lines that all we can hope to do at present (and he was talking about the 80s at the time) is to write 'disposable music'. In the last 10 years, I've written quite a lot of music and some of it's been pretty good (five years ago I wrote what I regard as my best piece) but it's been written with the intention that it should last. In the last year I've started going back to experimenting with ideas and have written a few pieces that are designed for specific occasions. But it feels distinctly odd to be giving out music that I don't quite see as 'finished' yet. I need to spend more time on this piece before I'm happy with it, and I don't have that time. I've got to perform a new piece on Thursday that I haven't even thought about yet so I just have to photocopy my manuscript and hand it to the pianist on Monday. It's basically ok, and we'll have time to discuss it in rehearsal and try various things out. |
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'is this all we can do?' anonymous student of the University of Berkeley, California quoted in H. Draper, 'The new student revolt' (New York: Grove Press, 1965) http://www.myspace.com/itensemble |
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