"Sound Morphology" (Bil Smith Composer): January 2019

Thursday, January 31, 2019

"Weitsyde and Johnson's Addition" for Compound Ensemble. Bil Smith Composer.

"Weitsyde and Johnson's Addition" for Compound Ensemble.

Spatial material logic of pseudosonic collage…a step in the direction of discontinuity; of organizing blocks of discourse simultaneously in space rather than connectively in time.

Bil Smith Composer.

This work is about grafting futures being envisageable without contradiction.

The abandonment of real necessity permits one last elucidation.

Wednesday, January 23, 2019

"le piano octosyllabique"

Monday, January 21, 2019

REVISIT: Dicky Barrett. "You Are In or You Are Out".

"Syree" Bil Smith Composer

In compositional endeavors, Perspectivalism is a semantic theory according to which the contents of utterances and mental states (perhaps of a particular kind) have a truth-value only relative to a particular perspective (or standard) determined by the context of the composer or performer of the transformative state.

Richard Barrett

I decided to capture an image of Richard Barrett's (Composer) precursor score to an upcoming premiere of his composition.

He so gallantly posted this score prior to performance and I took the opportunity to interpret it visually in a different manner (and yes, prior to the premiere). It's a re-appropriation of his work. It can be interpreted as a mockery or a compliment. (You decide). If you are unfamiliar with this concept, check out Walter Benjamin or perhaps better, in the world of literature, Kenneth Goldsmith. Bach and Kreidler come to mind as well.

I entitled this work "Syree", and yes, there is a message in the name.

Richard, part of the prescribed composers of "The New Complexity" did not take well to this, but then, I did not expect him to either. I do not say that as a ridicule of the composers categorized with this moniker. While it may not be in vogue in certain circles, I personally, find Brian Ferneyhough one of the most brilliant minds the music world has ever experienced.

Brian Ferneyhough

Brian Ferneyhough is kind, intellectual, compassionate, a disruptive thinker and ...well, the most important to me...just an all around great person. I had a great experience with him via email prior to meeting him in Darmstadt and I will always place him in very high esteem as a person. He is a sincere man with an extremely kind heart.

I do believe that reappropriation/appropriation is a new authority of thematic claims that can literally and metaphorically define a disruptive, radical shift in compositional discourse.

As in Poker - You're In or You're Out. - Bil

James Erber, Composer. Another fantastic mind and a
complete inspiration.

Let's relieve the stave of its duty and move on.

Rethinking the five (5) lines. A new stave. A new musical lexicon.

Composers; Musicians.

Let's relieve the stave of its duty and move on.

By creating a new musical language (syntacticon/lexicon) I show how a more satisfying account might be developed, once a distinction is made between two kinds of awareness. (You will not learn this here. You will need to read my other writing).

Portrait: Dick Barrett. Photography by Annie Liebovitz.

Let's consider the following...'to be is to be the value of a variable’: certain serious composer's theoretical claims about what there is, or what exists, are most perspicuously articulated using the quantifier of first-order logic.

On this view, one incurs ontological commitment to whatever one’s first-order theory quantifies over.

I have a few dear composers (mostly scholarly improvisers - and I say that tongue in cheek) who I hold in the lowest denominator of creativity.

Ebola Virus...a.k.a. The Five Lines

Some composers have different attitudes towards the relationship between ontological inquiry and first-order quantification, including: those complexists who claim that being is distinct from existence; those who hold that other expressions (e.g. predicates) can incur ontological commitment.

Hmm...let's place Jessie J. in a room with Dick Barrett.

Composers who reject the idea that all serious talk about being and existence can be captured by the first-order quantifier, and those who deny that first-order notational systems are the best vehicles for articulating metaphysical theories are ___________ (you fill in the blank).

Thursday, January 17, 2019

My response to someone challenging my compositional theory today who asks "How do I possibly understand what you are suggesting in your work

My response to someone challenging my compositional theory today who asks "How do I possibly understand what you are suggesting in your work.  How do I play this.  This makes no sense at all"  

I embrace this:

My response:

Here is the point.  Use your imagination...I compose to empower the performer.  Now if you have a certain rigidity to your approach to composition, you should stay away from my music, but I say this in a way that suggests opening your mind to ask yourself...what is this about?  

Take a moment and ask yourself...how do I tackle a notational lexicon which is not taught in the Conservatory.  

I write music with the best intentions of finding the exploratory visionaries to execute on my compositions.  I am open to questions, provocations and suggestions...always. Bil Smith