{"id":3129,"date":"2018-11-10T15:12:22","date_gmt":"2018-11-10T20:12:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pugix.com\/synth\/?p=3129"},"modified":"2025-05-04T10:12:33","modified_gmt":"2025-05-04T15:12:33","slug":"insignificant-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pugix.com\/synth\/insignificant-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Insignificant Music"},"content":{"rendered":"

I keep thinking about what to call the automatically playing patches.\u00a0 They are automatic in the sense that they continue autonomously after I make and adjust the patch.\u00a0 But that can describe many types of patch that I tend not to make, such as ones with a regular beat.\u00a0 My patches tend not to have a regular beat, but develop their own time structures.\u00a0 The following quotes are taken from John Cage’s Silence<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Beating time is not necessary.\u00a0 All that is needed is a suggestion of time…<\/p>\n

Question:\u00a0 Then what is the purpose of this “experimental” music?\u00a0 Answer:\u00a0 No purposes.\u00a0 Sounds.<\/p>\n

It is of the utmost importance not to make a thing but rather to make nothing.\u00a0 And how is this done?\u00a0 By making something which then goes in and reminds us of nothing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Something that reminds us of nothing can only be itself.\u00a0 It cannot be a sign of something else.\u00a0 It is in this sense that such music is quite literally insignificant<\/em>.\u00a0 It does not signify.\u00a0 It does not represent.\u00a0 It does not express meanings. But it also seems to me that when listening to music we are always looking to find some self-similarity in different parts of it.\u00a0 We hear some sounds and then later hear other similar sounds that remind us of the first ones.\u00a0 Structures can be recognized as adhering to sounds.\u00a0 But such structures do not signify.\u00a0 The structures are also just themselves.<\/p>\n

I seem to be following an ideal that would remove ‘ideas’ from sounds.\u00a0 It’s difficult, because I keep having ideas!\u00a0 And these creep into the sounds.\u00a0 Sound layering with a looping pedal is an idea to achieve greater density.\u00a0 Scale quantizers always impart a preconception to sounds.\u00a0 Hearing a scale sequence reminds us of the scale; it adds significance (and cheaply, at that).\u00a0 Making something that reminds us of nothing is not easy.\u00a0 It requires giving up on ideas, but not all ideas.\u00a0 Because it is an idea to make something that reminds us of nothing.\u00a0 However, this idea isn’t that common, and people who happen to listen to my patches probably are not thinking of this idea.\u00a0 It may be that (hopefully) their minds fail to find significance in what they’re hearing.\u00a0 And if they are expecting significance, they’ll be disappointed.\u00a0 Ironic, that if I succeed in making something that reminds us of nothing it could seem to be a failure to some listeners!\u00a0 When in fact, according to Cage, they are failing to listen!<\/p>\n

Where these ears are in connection with a mind that has nothing to do, that mind is free to enter into the act of listening, hearing each sound just as it is, not as a phenomenon more or less approximating a preconception.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I keep thinking about what to call the automatically playing patches.\u00a0 They are automatic in the sense that they continue autonomously after I make and adjust the patch.\u00a0 But that … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[125],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musings"],"yoast_head":"\nInsignificant Music - Richard Brewster's Electronic Sounds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pugix.com\/synth\/insignificant-music\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Insignificant Music - Richard Brewster's Electronic Sounds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I keep thinking about what to call the automatically playing patches.\u00a0 They are automatic in the sense that they continue autonomously after I make and adjust the patch.\u00a0 But that ... 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