Ancient roots. Ancient tools.

This extract is from The Republic by Plato, Book III (398-403).

"And therefore, I said, Glaucon, musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul, on which they mightily fasten, imparting grace, and making the soul of him who is rightly educated graceful, or of him who is ill-educated ungraceful: and also because he who has received this true education of the inner being will most shrewdly perceive omissions or faults in art and nature, and with a true taste, while he praises and rejoices over and receives into his soul the good, and becomes noble and good, he will justify blame and hate the bad, now in the days of his youth, even before he will recognize and salute the friend with whom his education has made him long familiar.

A full transcript of Plato's comments on music can be found here.

I do not have special knowledge.
Thousands and thousands of scholars and theorists have made deeper studies of Plato's words, shared above. And among millions of musicians over the millennia, I have taken inspiration from Plato's descriptions of the power of music and aspired to compose music that can serve listeners' pursuit of the "good, true and the beautiful."

My practice.
Beauty. Composing and listening to music.
Goodness. Contemplating/observing how music is received and used in the world​ and then what I might do to serve.
Truth. Sharing what I know and learning from those willing to share what they know.

Making beauty.
The pursuit of beauty is uncompromising and relentless. And by beauty, I don't mean pretty or attractive to the exclusion of all other things that need to be expressed. The beauty I work to express gives the listener an experience to shrewdly perceive omissions or faults in art and nature. 

What does THAT mean?
It means that music of every sort, from every time and place and rooted in every culture creates an experience for every listener and provides an experience that requires something from the listener (me). 

And the tools I have used explore extremes with every sort of example that I can imagine within the boundaries of the polarities:

• RHYTHM (predictable, steady to jagged, unpredictable)
• HARMONY (concordant to discordant)
• MELODY (flowing, singable to instrumental, athletic)

To hear what I am talking about, scroll through some of the music that has influenced me and that I re-visit for inspiration.

Can you see the dinosaur in this photograph? It is a gift from one of my favorite composers; and if you can find the dinosaur can you name that composer??
​My next post will be about how composers' (my) intentions are communicated, received and interpreted by  performers on its way to audiences' ears and minds.