June 23rds

 6/23/1998

 “Soul” is defined by that which is controlled by the muscles, the breath, the way the mind works, which observe these processes and make adjustments accordingly, all the while being consumed by the spirit of the moment.

[6/23/2025: A pretty good definition. (See: Do LLMs Have Soul?] 

Classical music is hard to position in culture because it’s so hard to match with other pieces of culture. It’s like furniture: you have an armoire in the rococo style that was built by the finest craftsmen, took two years to make, but it is difficult to fit with the exercise equipment and the green Naugahyde chair that your mother gave you when you left home at 21. (Solution: exercise equipment in rococo style)

[6/23/2025: The solution to the stresses of The New is to adapt. In art this adaptation can come in the form of juxtaposing the old and new. In the 90s and 00s retro design was popular–in car design for example, where a new Thunderbird borrowed elements from older models. AI might be a way to do this].     

Stopped by Terra Museum to check out new Chicago artists exhibit. Every time I go to these art shows I think, “I wish I could do this with music.”    

6/23/2019

It’s nice if a vocal has a rhythmic connection to the underlying arrangement, but it can be less locked. With preexisting lyrics it is common to edit them so they can be rhythmically coherent. Singing against existing music is easier because the words can wrap around or float freely above it. In my experience, the stage at which lyrics are introduced makes all the difference in the result. Writing from lyrics makes for more of a concise melody, one that could actually be notated on a lead sheet. That’s how it was always done back in the day. 

6/23/2023            
     
The Tao Te Ching In C is now complete, renamed to Tao Te Ching on C. (Finished at 6:24A)    

6/23/2024

It’s interesting that there’s now a renewed interest in cassettes, perhaps because we like certain aspects of the technology, such as the ability to turn it over and see what’s there, or to explore one of the extremes that weren’t supposed to be usable but are interesting. New technology typically throws out the baby with the bathwater, so it’s nice that someone wants to rescue it. I always thought bass sounded better on tape, but certainly classical music didn’t, so you don’t want to use it where tape hiss is unwanted. CDs had a brittleness when you didn’t want it. The revival of cassettes perhaps indicates we don’t like new mediums, or are less fun in some way. People still like making paper Zines because there’s a coolness to them. I’m reminded of what Malcolm McLaren said when CDs first came out. He thought they were “nasty things”. If you look at technology from the perspective of fashion, all the new mainstream stuff won’t be what’s cool. Cool is usually things that are about 20-40 years old and enter the “vintage” phase.