source file: mills2.txt Date: Thu, 9 Jan 1997 22:19:10 -0800 Subject: Re: Improvisation and thoughts From: Matt Nathan Jo A. Hainline wrote: > Although improvisation may be a skill helpful to the > mastery of a particular musical instrument I am not convinced that in > itself it adds anything to ultimate musical experience. Nor do I feel > that improvisational skill leads to more creative musical expression. In > fact it much more readily falls into the realm of noodling than much of > the so-called Western classical repertoire. Hm; spoken as a non-improviser I suspect? > I do not believe > there is a single place in the United States, or Europe for that matter, > were it is possible to experience silence. When I was a kid and went to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico USA, the tour guide at one point stopped the group and turned off the lights and had anyone with glow-in-the-dark watches cover their wrists, and asked everyone to stand perfectly still and make no sound, and just look and listen. It was absolutely black and silent. I think I might have heard a drop of water echo as it hit some distant stalagmite. It was great. When I went back recently, like 30 years later, they were no longer doing tours. Everyone was tramping in and out on their own like ants. > I am sure there are very few > who are aware of the effect that airplane and automobile noise has, and > when one can escape from that, the hum of the refridgerator or computer or > the electric lights, How about the ever-present hard-drive spin noise? I hate that! I hate the fridge noise. It always sneaks into even headphones and interferes with the pitches I'm trying to tune. During a sever wind storm here in Los Angeles last week, our electricity went out for a full day and night. The lessening of the noise level was pleasurable. Floatation-tank places make money from people's need for sensory silence. > even on the tops of mountains the "inaudible" > electromagnetic radio and TV and short wave radiation impinges upon our > psyches Hey, just wrap some metal foil around your head like Timothy Leary and you'll be fine! ;) > HOW CAN WE EXPERIENCE THE SILENCE FROM WHICH SPRINGS THE MUSIC > OF THE SOUL!!! Move to the countryside. Hold all calls. Toss the radio. Keep the fridge in the barn. Meditate. Wait. > Bruce Kanzelmeyer Which is your name; Bruce or Jo? Matt Nathan Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Fri, 10 Jan 1997 12:26 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA17461; Fri, 10 Jan 1997 12:29:42 +0100 Received: from eartha.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA17498 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id DAA03350; Fri, 10 Jan 1997 03:29:39 -0800 Date: Fri, 10 Jan 1997 03:29:39 -0800 Message-Id: <199701101126.DAA03297@eartha.mills.edu> Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu