RHESUS B

Glenn Gould, the eccentric pianist whose interpretations of Bach’s Goldberg Variations are a landmark in music history, early in his career rejected the concept of performing live. In the studio he discovered the technology to create the perfect music experience and detach performing classical music from a specific time and space. By splicing pieces of several different takes into one, he produced music that couldn’t have been created live or in a traditional one-take recording technique. The result is still today trulystunning and full of beauty and detail, but the funny thing is that despite this extremely perfectionistic approch, Gould still chose to enclose all his humming and singing and the shreeeking noises from an old mangled piano stool, he insisted to bring for every recording session. Maybe this is part of the reason why these recordings are so special.
In the mid-50’s Gould wrote an enthusiastic essay about studio recordings in which he says he is hoping that in future home stereo setups you will find a build in feature that allows you to splice different pieces of music or recordings together to create exactly the piece of music you desire. Sounds a bit like sampling, doesn’t it?
Pop critic Colson Whitehead said that it is failure, that guides evolution. Perfection offers no incentive for evolution. Progress will only happen by embracing and utilizing your errors creatively. In a creative work progress with high emphasis on speed, finish and perfection, accidents and failure are often the key to becoming truly inventive and discovering new approaches.
John Cage once looked closely at a sheet of note paper and discovered that the music was already there: The small scratches, marks and dirt were notes that just needed to be traced.
Enough about music. This is getting nowhere …

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Når man er vant til, at vores kære statsminister udelukkende udtrykker sig i letfattelige slogans ud fra devisen om, at gentager man den samme påstand tilstrækkeligt mange gange, bliver den en sandhed, er det fascinerende at høre ham fremsige følgende tågesnak, der skal underbygge Venstres nye selvbestaltede rolle som hvalernes ven. Et fænomen, der er omtrent lige så troværdigt som når Pia K. galper op om, at Dansk Folkeparti er et midterparti. (more…)