While hanging out with my friend and former band mate Ella Joyce Buckley, the topic of artists and their mastery over their craft came up. Though generally supportive of new art and the concept of progress in aesthetics and/or technique, she maintained that theater was one of the few art forms where artists regularly had to access old familiar parts of themselves. In other words, in order to play a role, they are required to draw from personal experiences to aptly convey a sense of character or emotion. She continued to argue that a true master of the craft would have such extensive access to these deep recesses that they wouldn’t have to mime grand gestures in order to convey a sense of personality. One who truly understands their art would be able to utter 2 words in such a way that everything an audience needs to know about the character is effectively communicated. Whether or not artists in other mediums similarly “access parts of themselves” is a different argument for a different day. The idea, however, of mastery over an art form displayed through economy of gesture is incredibly interesting. One might imagine a painter being able to, in a single stroke, paint a leaf in such a way that it expresses a unique thought or emotion. Musically, one could imagine a 4 note melody accomplishing a similar task. The ability to survey a situation and come up with a succinct yet effective solution requires deep understanding of a craft and earnest practice. (note: economy of gesture is not to be confused with economy of effort).
With the ability to instantly share information and ideas on an international level, it’s easy to become preoccupied with thinking that your work needs to make use of the newest, most sensational software and/or techniques to be valid. Though I’m not one to discourage new ideas, working methods, or complex systems for creating music, I realize that this sort of trap is something that often inhibits my own writing. It’s always humbling when I find someone who either ignores these shiny toys, or decides that they are unnecessary for a particular situation and is able to, in a single stroke, paint a picture that accomplishes what I have been unsuccessfully working towards in the form of a 3D feature film. When I see/hear/experience work like this I first become excited, then scared as I realize how much work and study I have left to do. Sometimes live processing, generative video, and additive acoustic synthesis are appropriate, effective, and necessary. More often a simple and concrete melody will suffice.
