{"id":7285,"date":"2012-02-04T13:22:15","date_gmt":"2012-02-04T21:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/?p=7285"},"modified":"2013-02-07T21:03:49","modified_gmt":"2013-02-08T05:03:49","slug":"writing-about-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2012\/02\/04\/writing-about-music\/","title":{"rendered":"writing about music"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the old saw goes, writing about music is like dancing about architecture. [for info on the origination of this quote, click here<\/a>] This is partly true, though I think writing about music, at its best, is often very revealing, and that dancing about architecture could be pretty illuminating, too. Perhaps one day PDX architecture mavens Brian Libby or Randy Gragg will take that one on. Part of the problem is that writing about music is terribly difficult. When a great example of this dark art comes around, it is essential to draw everyone’s attention to it. In this case, I’m referring to the pianist\/blogger Jeremy Denk’s article<\/a>\u00a0[abstract is free, paid access for entire article] in the Feb. 6 issue of the\u00a0New Yorker<\/em> magazine, in which he writes about the process of recording Charles Ives’ Concord<\/em> Sonata. Denk writes very well about music itself (see his musings on the Brahms Clarinet Trio here<\/a>), which is supremely difficult in its own right. But in this article, he uncovers the inner workings of the creative process (and the muddled sort of process that it often becomes) with uncanny accuracy. Denk’s writing does for my writing what listening to a great musician does for my playing – it inspires me to improve my own art. Lately my own work on this blog has been mediocre at best. This is due to a crisis in exactly what this blog is for and about. Over the past couple years, my musical experience has been about learning notes and reproducing them on command. Deadlines have been the order of the day. Basic sausage making. This is not good enough for me, or for those who come to hear the ensembles in which I perform. So, from now on, I’m re-devoting myself to thinking about the music that I play. Not just learning notes in a mindless fashion like a child laborer in south Asia. It’s time to return to the fine art of making music, and getting away from the mere craft of producing sounds. Fasten your seatbelts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the old saw goes, writing about music is like dancing about architecture. [for info on the origination of this quote, click here] This is partly true, though I think writing about music, at its best, is often very revealing, and that dancing about architecture could be pretty illuminating, too. Perhaps one day PDX architecture […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[225],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bloggers"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-1Tv","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2372,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/04\/20\/dancing-about-architecture\/","url_meta":{"origin":7285,"position":0},"title":"dancing about architecture?","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 20, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"For those of you who were at our Saturday evening concert of this past week's subscription series may recall a humerous quote that James DePreist cited about music: \"Writing about music is like dancing about architecture\".\u00c2\u00a0 He didn't give a source, and many of you may have thought that this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "miscellaneous"","block_context":{"text":"miscellaneous","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/miscellaneous\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3202,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/10\/05\/local-firm-designs-non-local-concert-hall\/","url_meta":{"origin":7285,"position":1},"title":"local firm designs non-local concert hall","author":"Charles Noble","date":"October 5, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"National Music Centre concept from Allied Works on Vimeo. Brian Libby writes on his Portland Architecture blog that Allied Works, a Portland architectural firm, has won the design competition for the new National Music Centre in Calgary.\u00a0 It's a striking structure, and looks like something that would easily fit into\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "architecture"","block_context":{"text":"architecture","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/architecture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1820,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/01\/30\/alice-tulley-reborn-at-lincoln-center\/","url_meta":{"origin":7285,"position":2},"title":"alice tulley reborn at lincoln center","author":"Charles Noble","date":"January 30, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The newly renovated Alice Tully Hall - Photo: Robert Polidori Alice Tully Hall, long reviled for its poor public spaces and horribly dry acoustics, has just undergone a $159 million renovation, and the initial response from both architecture critics and the musician tenants of the hall is very good.\u00c2\u00a0 The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "acoustics"","block_context":{"text":"acoustics","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/acoustics-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/090202_r18169_p465.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13575,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2014\/10\/05\/what-i-talk-about-when-i-talk-about-music-apologies-to-murakami\/","url_meta":{"origin":7285,"position":3},"title":"what i talk about when i talk about music (apologies to murakami)","author":"Charles Noble","date":"October 5, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"It's a funny think, writing about music. Yes, it's like dancing about architecture, but it's also pretty darned appropriate to do so. Some of the best writing I've read, fiction or non-fiction, has concerned itself about music or the fine arts in general. Music, in particular, lends itself to abundant\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/S1qL2ynRpXU\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1018,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/06\/24\/landscape-and-dance-the-halprin-collaboration\/","url_meta":{"origin":7285,"position":4},"title":"landscape and dance: the halprin collaboration","author":"Charles Noble","date":"June 24, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Pettygrove Park Tuesday morning Heather and I went to Pettygrove Park, and small urban oasis set in a 70's urban renewal zone largely characterized by monolithic, concrete apartment blocks.\u00c2\u00a0 It is one of three plazas in the area designed by renowned landscape architect Lawrence Halprin, along with the Keller Fountain\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chamber music"","block_context":{"text":"chamber music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/chamber-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"pettygrove park","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/06\/2609458320_e67751166b_m.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":509,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/10\/31\/taruskin-writes-bloggers-respond\/","url_meta":{"origin":7285,"position":5},"title":"taruskin writes – bloggers respond","author":"Charles Noble","date":"October 31, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Richard Taruskin, quite possibly the most formidable writer on music living today (or at least the most likely to open a can of whup-ass) wrote a 12,000 word \"review\" in the New Republic of three books on the current state of classical music. I was given a copy of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "music"","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7285\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}