January 19ths

 

1/19/1967

(Beatles Studio Diary)  

From little acorns...The song which was to become the stunning finale of the Beatles’ next album. “A Day In the Life”, started it out simply...as a stark bare recording…

[1/19/2025: “Little acorns” is a variation on David Lynch’s "idea sparks"]. 

1/19/1999

Reading Perspectives on Musical Aesthetics. I like Boretz’s essays. He thinks like most musicians should think: What is this for? How is it useful? What impact does it have on culture at large? But at the same time, put up roadblocks in your writing because you’re also playing the role of critic.

Excerpt Library (Music) “Discuss the role of the critic” Interesting reference to what would become metamodernism: 

Brian Eno (Interview Unknown)

Interesting reference to what would become metamodernism:  

"It's true: as soon as you drop that witty clown attitude, you expose yourself... because you're saying, 'This is actually what I really believe in.' Zappa is a paradigm of somebody who never takes that position. He writes beautiful tunes sometimes, which he destroys in the next bar." There are two separate strands going on: sometimes I describe them as 'the slow stuff' and 'the stuff with a beat', but actually a more accurate division would be 'the ironic stuff' and 'the sincere stuff'. The 'ironic' mode would be about distorting the currency of rock music in some way so that it's a very conscious working within a tradition, and it relies on people having a good knowledge of that tradition to understand it." It would be interesting to know what would've happened to music if a lot of people hadn't felt that way in the early Seventies. But it isn't just critics who think like that. A lot of musicians seem to operate as critics in a sense. In fact that's virtually what metamusicians are. "That's right. They're already playing the part of the critic as well when they make the work." "I wouldn't be a critic, for sure. I couldn't do it. I would hate to hurt people's feelings. I really would." 

What writing a prompt is in 2026:

“Imagine that you order an evening of music over the Net. You say, "We're having a dinner, people should be able to talk over the music, I'm fond of Pachelbel's Canon and Joni Mitchell and Miles Davis. Can you put together three hours for me?”
 

1/19/2020

Seldom, except in the art-song genre, can a poem be set to music as-is. There are always going to be words and phrases that have to surrender to the music. Rush always finessed that boundary between music and language in a very unique way. There is a winnowing process of navigating between what is both meaningful and singable that is very satisfying once you’ve resolved it. 

1/19/2023

Is sound a song? I think in postmodernism it is because anything-goes in postmodernism. In pop music it’s always the sound that counts first; it’s what hits a person’s ears within the first couple seconds. Music relies on time and so it takes time for you to absorb it. But in postmodernism, in the pop world, everything has to happen within seconds, so it’s impossible for music (in the modernist or premodernist sense) to fully exist in current pop music. It did obviously in previous decades, going back to the 20s and 30s. But back then, people weren’t looking for a Short. They were willing to devote more time to long-durational music, say an entire symphony in one sitting. I think music requires that. Perhaps with a metamodernist approach we can start to refocus on those things. As a musician, I focus on music first. Sometimes I may start with a sound but I’m not thinking that the sound in isolation, perhaps with rhythms or a beat, is going to be a song. But in today’s world, the sound is a song. In premodern times, the experience of music couldn’t use shortcuts. Recordings are in some sense shortcuts, so it’s ironic we now call them Shorts. But it was the sound as well, especially the natural beauty of harmonized vocals in cathedrals, bells, etc. The sound of bells, even if out-of-tune, has a natural beauty, and can be “songs”. 

1/19/2025

What’s interesting about the advent of AI in music is that it’s easier to play all the roles because the production is almost completed. You’re not having to get everyone motivated to do a performance. What’s left for the artist is to contextualize it in some way based on a central idea, or ideas that arise when you’re working on the visuals that go with it. That’s where the unique vision is.

[1/19/2026: Perhaps we're entering a new phase of "prompt-driven" art where instead of getting an idea for something and making it, we "describe" it. In my experience, it's more miss than hit in music generation, but it works well with visuals--much more so than only a year ago,]. 

1/19/2048

(Anthony Townes Diary)

Art show for the rehab unit. Everyone had neuroart pieces that could only be viewed in the meta gallery. I did a mixed media piece with AR elements, which were viewable only in the VR space, which made the actual painting seem unfinished. People used to complain about no one looking at art, now they can’t avoid seeing at least part of it. AR sculpture might be my metier.

What is neuroart?