Subtlety, Freedom and Frameworks.
"...Be not animal; refine thy rapture! If thou drink, drink by the eight and ninety rules of art: if thou love, exceed by delicacy; and if thou do aught joyous, let there be subtlety therein!
But exceed! exceed!"
When I picked up guitar, a little girl showed me the minor pentatonic scale. Within this 5 note scale, I found a framework suitable to the blues, and quickly picked up a means of improvising within this framework until I sounded like I knew what I was doing. Ok, so maybe I wasn't the great white suburban bluesman, but I liked playing, and it sounded ok. As I progressed in my playing and understanding, I expanded my scope, and the limits slowly expanded until they all but disappeared. I learned to use all the notes in a full scale, to transition between keys in mid-song, and to really take advantage of the instrument, but in the end, I fell back on the established structure. I think the high point of my first return to the basics was realizing that on one fret and one string, with just some bending and proper rhythm and timing, I could create something pleasant. In this aspect of expansion, improv is the height of expression, and as you grow you can improv in looser and looser frameworks until it is merely "playing" and there is no need for an artificial framework at all, as the player has absorbed all frameworks which apply and can move between them at will according to the work he chooses to create.
Now I am trying to learn violin. In studying other players, I have found a different, and to me far more impressive type of playing. Below is a video of Sarah Chang playing Mendelssohn's Concerto in E. Every note is already planned and laid out. What I used to think of as improvisation is not really present here, but if you listen to her play it and then listen to other players, even especially other great players, you will note that her version is distinctly her own. She doesn't NEED to change the notes or to write her own music. She is able to take an existing piece, played precisely to the original spec, but still, through subtly, make it entirely her own, and present herself through the playing thereof.
Some of the lesser magicians musicians I know insist that you can't play other peoples work. You need to write your own music, and play your own music, and to be caught up playing other peoples work makes you a crappy cover band; Not just that it is good to do your own work, but that your own original compositions are the only ones worth working towards. Is Sarah Chang and the NY Phil just a crappy cover band? Or are they involved in bringing to fruition an amazing piece of art, which truly blossoms under their care?
In the Ceremonial Magic 101 class the other day, scorpio111 mentioned Blakes idea of "Cleansing the doors of perception" (yet another reminder that I really must go get myself a proper liberal arts education) and this mirrored something an old pastor of mine used to say. We had a small church (yep, whole building, we owned it) and behind the pulpit was a stained glass window. When the window was clean, the glass shined brightly, when it was dull, it was just dirty glass. Pastor Buck was fond of using this as an analogy when we compared our lives to the Saints. He would point out that when they dedicated themselves completely to the attainment of the divine knowledge Jesus, we saw, in the gospels, their unique and individual characteristics as the glory of the Lord shown through them. They did not need to create their own thing, but through their attempts to most perfectly embody this existing greatness, they achieved their own greatness. This of course expands beyond Christianity to the saints of all religions and paths including natural philosophy. I am tempted to compare this to the exaltation of self (small s) as opposed to the pursuit of this truth to the requirement that all be focused on the attainment of Nuit.
I was also recently reading over the comment on Liber Al, Chapter 1 verse 51.
-- James
But exceed! exceed!"
When I picked up guitar, a little girl showed me the minor pentatonic scale. Within this 5 note scale, I found a framework suitable to the blues, and quickly picked up a means of improvising within this framework until I sounded like I knew what I was doing. Ok, so maybe I wasn't the great white suburban bluesman, but I liked playing, and it sounded ok. As I progressed in my playing and understanding, I expanded my scope, and the limits slowly expanded until they all but disappeared. I learned to use all the notes in a full scale, to transition between keys in mid-song, and to really take advantage of the instrument, but in the end, I fell back on the established structure. I think the high point of my first return to the basics was realizing that on one fret and one string, with just some bending and proper rhythm and timing, I could create something pleasant. In this aspect of expansion, improv is the height of expression, and as you grow you can improv in looser and looser frameworks until it is merely "playing" and there is no need for an artificial framework at all, as the player has absorbed all frameworks which apply and can move between them at will according to the work he chooses to create.
Now I am trying to learn violin. In studying other players, I have found a different, and to me far more impressive type of playing. Below is a video of Sarah Chang playing Mendelssohn's Concerto in E. Every note is already planned and laid out. What I used to think of as improvisation is not really present here, but if you listen to her play it and then listen to other players, even especially other great players, you will note that her version is distinctly her own. She doesn't NEED to change the notes or to write her own music. She is able to take an existing piece, played precisely to the original spec, but still, through subtly, make it entirely her own, and present herself through the playing thereof.
Click to viewSome of the lesser magicians musicians I know insist that you can't play other peoples work. You need to write your own music, and play your own music, and to be caught up playing other peoples work makes you a crappy cover band; Not just that it is good to do your own work, but that your own original compositions are the only ones worth working towards. Is Sarah Chang and the NY Phil just a crappy cover band? Or are they involved in bringing to fruition an amazing piece of art, which truly blossoms under their care?
In the Ceremonial Magic 101 class the other day, scorpio111 mentioned Blakes idea of "Cleansing the doors of perception" (yet another reminder that I really must go get myself a proper liberal arts education) and this mirrored something an old pastor of mine used to say. We had a small church (yep, whole building, we owned it) and behind the pulpit was a stained glass window. When the window was clean, the glass shined brightly, when it was dull, it was just dirty glass. Pastor Buck was fond of using this as an analogy when we compared our lives to the Saints. He would point out that when they dedicated themselves completely to the attainment of the divine knowledge Jesus, we saw, in the gospels, their unique and individual characteristics as the glory of the Lord shown through them. They did not need to create their own thing, but through their attempts to most perfectly embody this existing greatness, they achieved their own greatness. This of course expands beyond Christianity to the saints of all religions and paths including natural philosophy. I am tempted to compare this to the exaltation of self (small s) as opposed to the pursuit of this truth to the requirement that all be focused on the attainment of Nuit.
I was also recently reading over the comment on Liber Al, Chapter 1 verse 51.
-- James