If an artist wanted to make art using time as the material, the obvious thing is music. Time is the pillar that holds music up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ve been writing about both music and time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Time is not as stable as I had thought. The metronome my daughter, the classical violinist, uses is very rigid. More regular than reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Art that inspired me shows a different perspective. Sometimes that is a yank back into the rigid. And sometimes it tears down the walls of expectation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My musical culture is made of fours. Quarter notes and 4\/4. The familiar but surprise variation is the three quarter tim. One two three one two three\u2026waltz with me. You know it, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A different familiar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Can something completely new\u2014not following the pattern and the usual\u2014can it still be beautiful? Or would it be unsettling?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jazz famously pulled music into new shapes. Dave Brubeck and his quartet created an album Time Out <\/em>in 1959. He intended to try different time signatures, after traveling around Eurasia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He didn\u2019t expect much from it, nor did Columbia records. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So he and his quartet created this exploring album, with an extraordinary result. This album, taking a risk with not a lot of expectation became the best selling jazz album ever. Wrapping the mind around the wrong way, a new way of making music, the whole album had strange time signatures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Take five<\/a><\/em>\u00a0proves the delight, the surprise\u2026if no one told me it was in 5\/4 I wouldn\u2019t have noticed. But it is very catchy and even though it goes on forever it doesn\u2019t feel repetitive to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n C<\/em>omposed by his saxophonist Paul Desmond,\u00a0Take five<\/em>\u00a0reached number 2 on the billboard charts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I might be the only one who feels the attraction for the odd thing I\u2019m trying to create.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Or I might not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I still want to create.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If an artist wanted to make art using time as the material, the obvious thing is music. Time is the pillar that holds music up. I\u2019ve been writing about both music and time. Time is not as stable as I … Continue reading