Devachan Music - Community Room

Overture Overture

The Community Room page provides an assortment of philosophical ravings, exercises, examples and case studies, organized loosely into various Themes. As you read through these various ramblings and musings, it may look like I do a lot of reflecting and "theorizing" about stuff; and perhaps it might seem like my practice comes out of such theorizing.

Truthfully, I try not to work from pre-conceived theories. But after I've done something for awhile, I do like to stand back and reflect on patterns that emerge from individual choices I've made. It is always mysterious to me how much structure, and how much freedom, is there to be seen!

Beyond this practical approach to theory building (who was it that said, "In theory, theory is the same as practice, but in practice, practice is not the same as theory"?) I've come to see a basic philosophy which informs all my music: my composing and tunesmithery and songwriting; my playing socially and performing professionally; my teaching and writing about music; and my continuing "action research" to learn from others and reflect. I've tried to reflect this philosophy in the content, structure and intended process of this Community Room. Here's an attempt to articulate it:

The Manifesto

In classical Western music, there is a split between composer, performer, and audience; between collector, arranger, music publisher and copyist. There are also fierce hierarchies of distinction between professional, amateur, and "non"-musicians... between instrument inventor, instrument builder, and piano tuner. Along with these distinctions come perceived dissociations between the contexts of performing, practicing, and teaching.

I'm interested in writing music, and writing about music, in ways that help cross over some of these boundaries. I like kinds of music where teaching, and learning, occur as organic parts of the performance process. Where the structure of the music makes audible the process of exploration.

I'm sure this is one thing that has attracted me to traditional music, where many of these boundaries are much more fluid. Traditional musicians, far from being stodgy, are often great experimenters, tinkerers, discovering musical possibilities from "first principles" by just grabbing an instrument and applying the same practical horse sense and hand wisdom that helps them get fields plowed and tractor engines fixed. So from playing it the way Dad used to play it, to improvising, making/half-remembering a tune, using a funny tuning, or rigging up a weird version of an instrument, may be a short distance.

For me, music is intimately tied to both a path of inner schooling and a search for new kinds of social forms, new ways of weaving ourselves together. Music creates a dynamic tension between the individual and the community. Musicians playing together form a community that, at the best of moments, can conceive as one mind. Musical forms provide structures that help this happen. And yet, within the individual musician, music also requires that a number of separate, autonomous, but cooperating cognitive processes take place simultaneously. In effect, the individual creates a "community" within his or her own consciousness. Musical forms also provide structures that aid in this process. In these and other ways, Music not only Illustrates (makes audible) but Manifests a process vital for the evolution of the world.

I think this same approach promising for Website communities.
Hence this Community Room.

(Over over? Sure, sure!)

Comment? Use the Tag "Overture"

. This page last updated on 3 September 2003