Tranquil MMVI.48 [Rhodes with flute] Mandala

plaintive song played soft. my flute encircles a thought. mandala of mind. ... Live at EmmaJoe's Coffeehouse. Rhodes recorded Sunday afternoon, then played back at gig on Monday night to 'self accompany' my Live flute. ... I'm sitting in a coffeeshop downstate uploading this, and Zach just asked me what my influrences are. Hmm... Paul Horn, Steve Reich... And, Vangelis. I have his 'Opera Sauvage' (on vinyl :-). He is one of my strongest influences. A few months ago i was listening to Opera Sauvage. It feels very romantic to me (something i've been accused of, myself) - very moving, in a way that is difficult to describe. As i was listening to a certain passage (played on Rhodes piano), i realised Vangelis does something i feel is at root to why i play music. It is part of an ancient paradigm, wherein the purpose of music is to 'dampen out' chaotic mental noise, - to put a kind of 'bias' on the mind - which might otherwise howl with feedback, like an amplifier with too much gain and no signal. The first "savage breast" i soothe is mine own. My music, firstly, is my own homemade music therapy - a folk remedy as old as human conciousness. ... And, i wonder, how can i take full credit for creating my music? Nature has equipped me, but can i truly say i understand the process? We study it, and 'understand' it, but have we really invented music? Or, are we 'hard-written' to make it? Music is in my 'ROM', and my cerebrum mostly goes along for the ride (and "what a long beautiful trip it's been"). All our Theory we cook up (like Music Theory)... but what do we really know? As Duke Ellington famously put it, when asked by a reporter, "Mr. Ellington, how can you tell if it's 'good' music?", he answered: "Man, if it sounds good, it Is good." Just as a mother can be thought of as a 'steward' of the process of life, i realise that i too am only a steward of a creative process. I like to think of my music as something i've brought forth - something which nature has equipped me to do (for which i am inexpressibly grateful). I can accept that i am a producer. But, where does it comes from, really? It is quintessentially unanswerable - the question for the Philosopher, Sage, or other thinking person, to which the answer is '42'. Have i ever been satisfied with the answer? I don't even know the question. It feels beyond the limb of my understanding. It may be ever beyond it. Perhaps the same can be said for any intelligence: we are but stewards of it. I view my knowledge of music as metaphor for my knowledge of anything - for anyone's knowledge of anything. Which is why i'll just settle in, and play, "for Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast." (William Congreve) ~heath ... Creative Commons 2.5 - attribution, non-commercial, share alike