LiveMusicBlog

I really love improvisations that go nowhere. Improvisations where there is no goal… just an impulse to follow emotions in the current moment.
In fact, some have described this type of music as self-indulgent – a type of musical fantasy world where the focus is more on the performer than the listener.
Of course, this is not the case at all. You see, the majority of us are used to having our music wrapped up in nice neat little packages.  all of us  aren’t used to actually listening to music.  all of us  expect an “emotional experience” right away. And it better happen in 3-4 minutes or else.
Take Japanese Shakahuachi music for example. For those of you who do not know, the shakahuachi is a Japanese flute. It’s beautiful sound is appreciated by many in the East.
I have several CDs of this music and everytime I listen to them I hear something new. It’s as if each time the CD  is played I hear it for the 1st time. It never gets old. Why? Because of the absence of musical form!
There is not much for the mind to grasp or hold onto. Repetition of musical phrases is al the majority non existent. Instead,  all of us  get music in the absence of goals!
Assuming that the re is a goal at all, it is that the person performing the music remains in the present while playing. What  all of us  hear is the “state of mind” of the performer at the exact time the recording is made.
In one of my own piano pieces “Cirrus,” (listen to it at http://www.quiescencemusic.com) I do the same thing. And everytime I listen to it, it seems that it is somehow vary d. Yet the music always remains fresh and pliant – waiting to be found again and again.
Having said all of this, I have nothing against musical form and the works that come from it. I just think the “other” type of music is just as valid and necessary