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06/09 Music has many functions for different people. Stravinsky famously said that the function of music is to halt our perception of time. I think it also can alter our perception of space. In this way it is a handy and essential break from our perceived spatial and temporal limits. Many people run into trouble assigning this function to music only. Perhaps this need to transcend should be addressed in other aspects of our lives. On my recent tour of Switzerland and Germany i was lucky to have short drives between gigs and therefore some free time. It was great to see that even smaller towns in these countries have art museums of a quality normally associated with the larger cities in USA. I took great inspiration from german-speaking painters as diverse as Max Beckmann and Gerhard Richter,and especially a big show of paintings and poems of 18th century chinese artist LUO PING in Zurich at the Reiterg Museum. The artist made his living like others in his family by making paintings of plum blossoms. at the center of many rooms full of his work were 8 renderings of ghosts. he claimed to see them often. these exquisite pieces seemed to me the gems of his life's work. it seemed to me that the effortlessness of technique acquired from years of plum blossum drawing allowed him to bring great spontaneity and looseness to a subject of great importance. the ability to shift gears emotionally as needed can be exercised by the zen directive to treat matters of "small" importance with great care, and thereby prepare to be offhand at defining moments and observe the result. i will be staying in Los Angeles for most of july, and Chautauqua, new york for most of august. i'm attempting to change the rhythm of my activities during the summer. I'm shifting to a more compositional/preparatory mode. in L.A the visual art grows out of the street like music in New Orleans. in Chautauqua i have family, classical concerts, and trumpet lessons. Both places offer a profoundly different array of physical environments. |