Lee Barry Composition Diary

5/31/1886 https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/f9a5ed81-6412-48ca-950a-b21fba83f0a2 Factory whistles mark time now—6 AM, noon, 6 PM. Our days measured not by sun but by production schedules. Overheard two lawyers debating anarchist philosophy over lunch. One called it "foreign poison," the other "inevitable evolution." Both missed the desperate humanity at its core. The question persists: Can we build a just society with unjust methods? Or do the methods inevitably corrupt the society?            5/31/1944 (Naples 44) The fragmentation of Italian politics in reaction to the long stagnant acquiescence under Fascism continues. There are now some sixty officially recognized political parties having memberships ranging from a hundred or so to nearly two million. Many of these offer bizarre recipes for national salvation, including a small band of fanatics in the Salerno area , who claim to have discovered the solution of the problem of perpetual motion, and to be...

5/30/1886 {Thomas Sullivan diary--AI-generated)  3 weeks since Haymarket. German anarchist near Lincoln Park distributing pamphlets with revival fervor. His story—displacement, awakening, revolution—mirrors thousands of others. On the telephone exchange on LaSalle: Voices traveling instantly, yet we fragment into distinct clusters. Connection breeds isolation. We preserve the essentially human while embracing the inevitably mechanical. The question shapes not just policy, but daily texture itself.  https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/a9bb552b-48db-4b53-9f19-47172983af3a 5/30/2000 Art institute for Bilbao exhibit. Big, grand redesigns of cities have been known to not work, e.g. Corbusier’s “remote” work in Tunisia. Perhaps Frank Gehry will be the catalyst to make it succeed.   5/30/2011 Film: Transcendent Man . Takeaways: Immortality to deal with the death of his father; Instead of writing music he designed a machine to do it; Driven by generations (re: The Fourth Turn...

 

 Today's rhythm. Use for every line in a song.    

  5/29/2013 Centennial of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring .  Interesting juxtaposition: This morning the Barnum circus train was on an adjacent track to the El, which I thought was symbolic of life on a different track, and The Rite, while not a “Petrushka”, was an alternate reality in the music world.    5/29/2024 In the Tin Pan days, many songs would be based on the rhythms of the words in the chorus. Some words are inherently rhythmic and are kind of a drum, a word “drum”, a wordrum if you will. The word “editor” is typically spoken with 16th notes. There are other note values you can use but it is naturally a percussive word. If you displace the phrase by an eighth note and put it on an upbeat it's unintelligible.     5/29/2026 AI music is "out of control" in the sense that you can't control individual elements, any more than you can anything that's "sealed". Music is naturally 'jailbroken'.

There are 3 basic rules for the Songday "system": A song started on a certain date A song finished on a certain date A song about a certain date in time  The process involves randomly selecting words and phrases from the diary and using the natural rhythms in the words to make the core riffs. The rhythms of words are a kind of "drum" and drive the pulse of he music and directs the flow of meaning, expressed through melody and harmony. It's similar to black-out poetry (or reverse redaction) where only the used words and phrases are visible. The process is not unlike working in series in visual art. Each day I jot down these rhythms manually in the Songday Diary, my sketchbook.                     An AI-analysis: While I agree with its assessment, my take is much more mechanical. They seem to analyze what I'm doing as being what a composer would do for a period film, setting the stage for a specific historical framework. But what I'm ...

5/28/2010 Interesting: The Seventh Generation philosophy of the Iroquois. They thought it was appropriate to think seven generations ahead (a couple hundred years into the future) and decide whether the decisions they make today would benefit their children seven generations into the future.  5/28/2015  In his interview on the On Being podcast, composer Gustavo Santaolalla talked about how young tango musicians are very good technically, but lack knowledge of the deeper personal and cultural meanings in the art form. This should be no surprise given that we learn through emulation and imitation, primarily through recordings instead of teachers and mentors. It poses an interesting facet of emulation that demotes direct experience over copying and remixing.  Rhythmic styles such as tango, leave many things implied. It is a music that has a pulse that you can dance to, but is high context, i.e. there is a tacit understanding that doesn’t have to be explicitly restated with a...

 Context Windows

  5/27/1966 Long sequence involving Bob Dylan and John Lennon, filmed riding in the back of a limo driving into central London. No script or direction other than to themselves. The piece was long and incomprehensible, made worse by the fact that they were both on drugs. The sequence was intended to form part of Eat The Document , a chronicle of Dylan’s latest European concert tour.  [2026: 60 year anniversary]  5/27/2000 Smashing Pumpkins announce breakup. 5/27/2017   50th anniversary of the release of Pepper.   What is remarkable about this album is the amount of creativity and inventiveness, given the state of recording technology in 1967. Pop music was just dipping its toe into the avant-garde.    In retrospect, the Beatles might have been “me too”, but they did it so well, in the sense that they were the bridge to familiarity by the average listener. That’s the other remarkable point: what took them so long? (Pink Floyd was already at that level b...

5/26/1969, Montreal John and Yoko’s second and last “bed-in” for peace. 5/26/1997 Memorial Day  Cold and windy, 55 degrees—the coldest I’ve ever seen. Apparently there is a keen interest in memes on the Web. [1997–when I first saw changes in weather patterns].   5/26/2005 One of the biggest mistakes in listening to music is just reading the lyrics and not listening to the music. They really use two different areas of the brain: one of the challenges of writing good songs is to target one of these areas in a positive way or to get both areas in sync. (John Lennon was good at this.)    [Or it's the opposite--listening to the music and not listening to the lyrics. Sometimes lyrics can just be another sound, so they don't have to make sense or even be intelligible, and can just be mumbled. Pop music isn't about the music].     “Orange Rhyme” [How shadows fall at 5:30 in May]   5/26/2023 More and more I see songwriting as making a painting. Not th...

5/25/2000 Wireless internet means more people will be able to listen to music without being stuck in front of a computer.  5/25/2007 Cheap oil made exurbia possible, and now people are trapped in cars driving around in sprawl, with little hope of ever developing a public transportation system.  [A song idea based on the rhythm in one word: “exurbia”] 5/25/2011                 Oprah’s final show. 5/25/2019 Music is more emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually rewarding for me both as an artist and listener. Visual art is stimulating for me at the intellectual/conceptual level, as well as at the level of craft. Rhythm in music—involving the body—also directly connects with emotion. Emotion in some sense is the “fuel” of rhythm and how it is played dynamically in a piece of music (also known as eurythmics). Expression, as an aspect common to both, is equally moving. 5/25/2024, Saturday Gorgeous day. Took s...

5/24/1949 (Kerouac Journal) "...Someday perhaps I myself will look back on those days (before selling [On the Road]) with the same kind of wonder..." 5/24/2000 The proliferation of wireless internet is a great opportunity for marketing music: They can listen to it, but not necessarily download it. Fascinating documentary on PBS,”Sahara”. Great soundtrack of Arabic music. It reminds me how much I love this music. [5/24/2025: PBS has been hugely valuable to me, and probably to most everyone living. Of course, we are flooded with DIY content, but not how PBS has produced it historically]. On the Cluetrain Manifesto :  I’m generally against the idea of manifestos because 99% of the time they’re too “culty”. This one has some interesting and useful things to say: Don’t wait for someone to show you how; [5/24/2025: This morning I riffed on how skills are being redefined by new technologies and we don’t necessarily need for people to show us how–we just teach ourselves. This started...

  Sometimes when I hear something interesting in AI-generated music I'll transcribe it and arrange it in some fashion. There's an interesting minor chord a minor second below the tonic chord, which is something odd I would never do, but AI plays by different rules.  The AI version with over-the top guitar soloing:     The "short", only 30 seconds long with a flute playing the melody: The lyrics are derived from Dynaxiom 0408: Beauty finds itself and its beholder, then fleshed out. Beauty finds itself And its beholder When you trust yourself As a frequency holder  Beauty hides itself It could be bolder When you find your Self Over your shoulder Beauty makes itself In a linear order Chaos comes to rest At the edge and the border        

5/21/1997 It’s been such a cold spring that the birch trees don’t even have buds yet.  [5/21/2025: As a melody. Lyrics can start anywhere--from anything. All prose has possible poetry within it if distilled to ideas. This also reminded me of the "Dust " track on Fleetwood Mac's Bare Trees album. Exact weather today as it was in 1997.]   5/21/1998 If that's all we had was one radio station and one TV station, it would profoundly affect the way our culture develops. The complexity of culture is the result of all the possible choices that we have.     [5/21/2025: And here we are] 5/21/2000, Sunday   Reverend John Spong —”I don’t even like religious people.”   ***   Two Chinese artists piss on Duchamp’s Fountain at Tate Modern.   5/21/2021 Article in Scientific American titled, “You don't have to start young to be a great musician”. This goes back to the evergreen discussion about how early to start musical training. I didn't start playing ...

[Notes from research for my “Cusp” book on boundaries and the sea-change of 1966. I believe it was an issue of Life]. 5/20/1966: “The Big Snoop”—Electronic snooping, fascination with espionage “ Space Age” advertising copy/slogans, article on the “Free University”, “teach-ins”, “new madness at the discotheque”, exams to see who gets drafted (“score high and die”), article: “electric guitars bring a rash of teenage combos”, issue on Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf shatters every rule of Hollywood propriety— a test of how far a film can go.”, 8-track advent—American Motors will offer 8-track continuous loop tape. cartridge unit as optional equipment on 1967 models, Headphones gaining popularity, Revolver top LP, pop music is considered “hot”, jazz is “cool”, Jazz release: Tony Scott, clarinetist (Music for Zen Meditation) Jazz new releases: John Coltrane Live at the Village Vanguard, Ahmad Jamal Heat Wave, Marianne Faithful. 5/20/2011   Gorgeous day. Back to one of my favorite spots. ...

 

 

5/19/2008  Made small painting based on the Arnold Newman photograph of Stravinsky at the piano, replaced with a silhouette profile of a cowboy. 5/19/2005 Light Escape. Sort of a May “henge” moment, where the sun angle is such that it casts interesting shadows. All seasons have their shadow moments].                                        5/19/2013 Masdar Strip , digital transparency in custom lightbox.                         An abstract elevation of a quarter mile of illuminated buildings along a boulevard as if seeing it from a distance, suggesting a street view illuminated with signage. The title is drawn from the planned city, Masdar in the UAE. If the city had a Strip, this is how it might look from a mile away. The lightbox display is in itself a Sign and a “Strip” (as in the Las Vegas Strip) and the apposite frame fo...

5/18/1995 (Eno Diary)  “Realized today I’ve spent three years gazing at computer screens and it has got me not very far. In my next studio, as an experiment, I’ll have no computer set-up. The thought of going in in the morning and not switching on is thrilling and daunting...." [5/18/2025: Yesterday, I created a piece of art that didn’t involve the internet, social media, or AI. It’s important to gauge how we feel when we use, or not use, technology, and then do more of that. You’re not on a hamster wheel. We can delude ourselves that hamster wheels are fixtures of life. Sadly, the avant-garde has been dying. It’s not like anyone’s making ‘pataphysical YouTube videos or performing Schwitters’ Ursonate , whereas these kinds of things were interesting to people at one point]. [5/18/2026: AI is now in the loop of our lives, whether we want it or not. You have to continue to do things manually. In music, I can be more experimental. AI is far too hands-off (hot), but it will become coo...

5/17/1932 (The Daybooks of Edward Weston) Weston (begrudgingly) does some wedding photography at Del Monte Lodge . He can’t be choosy—it pays the rent. Possible narrative: The bride at this wedding is a radio star in 1932 and her name is Radio Angel. The photographer they hired is Edward Weston. One of the shots taken has the big and golden full moon rising in the background, which is either a good or bad omen. The harmony is super simple. Part of the lyric of One Step: This worried bed I sleep in Holds my heart up off the floor Crumpled pillows hide my head Tension knocking on the door Wondering why you're here No one knowing what's the score The moon has come and gone So many times before                                   5/17/2025 Photographs For Music ( Man Ray's Double Profile Solarized and Nanobes from Ancient AI ). Feels nice to do something arty instead of AI stuff. Context Windows (Speaking of...

 Sunset  

5/16/1966 A long (2:30P - 130A) day ‘Taxman’ received its final ingredient (the “One, two, three, four intro) then mixed into mono, with Paul vocal overdub on ‘For No One’. On location at Chiswick House to film promo clips for ‘Paperback Writer’ and Rain’. At EMI working between 11.00 am and 12.30 pm, first set of stereo mixes and edits since sessions for Revolver began. 5/16/2005                     New neologisms: Anodine: to dine on comfort foods, Anodiner: a comfort food Diner.    5/16/2010 Watched film, Tarantino's remake (sort of ) of Inglorious Bastards . Lots of long boring parts, but lots of cheap shots at Nazis—a crowd favorite.    [5/16/2025: What a difference 15 years makes]. 5/16/2011             In my experience, AI is only marginally useful in the humanities. I can’t imagine it would be so pervasive that it would change...

3/12/2014 Bongo player in subway:   An orchestral short:  

5/14/1898, Berlin  (Harry Kessler Diary)  Kessler lunches with Hofmannsthal. He ruminates on how aristocracies are out of touch with their own people and are only exalting their status by “stoking of ethnic hatred.”  5/14/1977 (Keith Haring Diary)  “I am in Miles City, Montana, sitting in the sun. Thinking about the Grateful Dead, ‘cause the last ride was 77 miles of AM Radio. 5/14/1998 Journal of Pop Culture article on slam dancing and modernity. I like the references to "flow" experiences described as "a state which exists between boredom and anxiety and requires that the participants skill neither exceeds or falls short of the task demands”, or “a loss of ego infusion with the world." The slam dancers always felt free and released, but with a "hangover"afterwards. Most said that it was the music that moved them, which I can't entirely believe. “Music” is something your parents listen to. Slammers go for the "numinous" cultural experience. ...

 

 The daily groove: 5/11/2024  

3 Against 4   5/9/1967   Beatles at EMI: A long (11.00 pm-6.15 am) but decidedly unproductive session in which the Beatles committed to tape a mere 16 minutes of an out-of-tune untitled instrumental jam comprising two guitars (one with vibrato effect), drums and a harmonium. [Imagine an entire night of noodling with no results]   5/9/2005 There’s a guy in London who wanders the streets—He is a mute, and says nothing, but when he sits down at the piano, he plays beautifully. That’s his only way of communicating. Music is indeed language, processed at the emotional centers of the brain.  5/9/2010   Article about the precipitous decline in interest in fidelity. This is one of the ideas behind the idea of ambient music. But not all music is created for the purpose of being pushed to the background. The only way to get people interested in fidelity is to somehow take it beyond the quality of the sound and introduce psychoacoustics and 3D sound. File size constraints ...