Wednesday, July 30
An Undeveloped Idea
I think music is the closest artistic means to create ex nihilo. When you paint or sculpt, everything is there before you: the paint, the canvas, the wood or stone. When you write a song, you have a silent instrument that offers nothing except what you can make from it. Ex Nihilo. Creation from nothing.
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5 comments:
Very good point. I think writing music is very similar to writing poetry. Agree?
for many people, i'm sure. but it's not the same for me. if it were i'd have an easier time writing lyrics for songs.
Interesting post. I've often wondered about the difference between media. I will have to disagree with you on this one (just for kicks;). There is always something there. Like you said, when you go to write a song, there is the instrument. There is also the space where you play. There is also the music in your head. There are also all of the musical influences of the past week, or month, bouncing around in your psyche.
And why is starting with a big slab of granite or a blank sheet of paper any different from starting with a silent piano or guitar? Each instrument already suggests something, a trajectory, a cone of possibility. It already determines what you will and won't play. Besides, this is what makes so many pieces of art unique--radical contingency.
We actually talk a lot about this in improv, because it's so scary for people to think about getting up and crating "ex nihilo." We have to remind ourselves that we are always starting with something--our ideas, our partners ideas, posture, mood, surroundings, etc. The biggest challenge that I have encountered is getting people not to be afraid of what is already there.
I agree with you. It really isn't ex nihilo. But I do think there's something unique to music - actually, it's shared with improv - and that's that the creation only exists in the moment. It's not like a painting or sculpture. Visual art collects to what's already been made. Though that does occur with music and acting, it's collecting to a memory, not to a concrete element.
I'm not using my words well. I hope I'm making sense.
Hmmm . . . Yeah, I see what you mean. The musical creation is stored in human memory, whereas the visual creation is stored on physical material. Of course, music is stored on physical material when you record it, but there is a difference between "performance" art and "studio" art.
We often refer to the objects of visual art as the "art itself." However, in visual art (as in any art), the art involves not only the seen objects but the seeing itself--the experience of viewing the art.
If this is the case, then it is perhaps more helpful to consider the differences in media along the lines outlined above--"performance" and "studio" art. This is the difference between art that is stored in/on physical material and art that is stored in humans (thus requiring those humans to be present in order to experience the art).
Of course, the distinctions are not absolute. Performance art still often requires physical implements (e.g. guitar) and the experience of studio art can be considered a type of performance (which takes into account venue and listener/viewer).
I've rambled for long enough. But this subject is quite intriguing to me. Thanks for creating the space for the exploration of art.
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