Steve Schwartz:

>I have long known that Michael Torke and I don't share ideas on what
>we want music to do.  Early on, Torke's inspiration was painterly.
>Although that has abated somewhat, he still regards the fact that music
>must unfold in time as music's "slavishness" to time, and his goal for
>music is an ecstatic stasis -- ignoring time, in effect.  On the other
>hand, I would argue that music shapes time, attempts to master it through
>a meta-narrative...

There are some arresting ideas here.  I want to play with them a bit,
in the hope of spurring some discussion to nudge this group from its
stasis, torpor, or winter doldrums, because there has not been too much
lively discussion of anything lately.

Part of my own fascination with music--and its centrality in my life,
more than with any of the other arts--is its inherent connection with
time (starting with its most basic elements, like tempo).  Since I do
not read music well enough to make out--visually--anything but the
smallest structures in a piece of music, virtually my entire experience
of music is as-performed nonstop, except that with modern technology
I can repeat a recorded performance.  In consequence of that, memory
and reflection (as well as the analysis of other people) permit me to
"hear a piece whole," so to speak, and to anticipate what is ahead in
a performance.  But it is the sensuous or exciting immediacy, moments
of ecstasy, rather than a grasp of the overall architecture of a piece,
that keeps me coming back for more.  If I lose that, perhaps because of
overexposure to a piece, I lose the piece.

When I reflect on the experience of listening to music, time also comes
readily to mind.  Even the longest piece of music can be heard in a
remarkably limited amount of time.  It is there, and then it is over.
Life is also strictly temporary, on any interpretation.  There is sadness
in that thought.  I am convinced that some music can and does actually
express that particular sadness.  It brings reality home and perhaps
helps a listener cope with that reality, because even what is momentary
can be intensely worthwhile.  (A meta-narrative, to use Steve's phrase,
not necessarily one he would endorse, to be sure.)

Now about this "ecstatic stasis" of Torke's (interesting that one of
his works is called Ecstatic Orange and another Rapture).  I just want
to touch on the idea, not dispute over whether his music can bring one
to that, but IF it can, more power to it.  The psychologist Maslow wrote
about "peak experiences." They occur in time, of course, but what they
can do for a person, even the memories of them, can enrich a whole
lifetime.  I see a similarity or at least an analogy between Torke's
notion and Maslow's.  Because not all moments in life have equal value,
the notion of "stopping time," for a moment or series of moments, has
great appeal.

If that is indeed something we can do, in the course of listening to
music, we could discuss what kinds of music do that for us, and whether
any kind of musical "stasis" is involved, but I am not going to go there
this time, other than not rule it out.

Jim Tobin